{"id":376682,"date":"2019-04-22T16:39:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T20:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=376682"},"modified":"2019-04-24T08:32:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T12:32:30","slug":"maria-irene-fornes-conduct-of-life-international-theatre-program-376682","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/maria-irene-fornes-conduct-of-life-international-theatre-program-376682\/","title":{"rendered":"Theater production visits work of avant garde Cuban-American playwright"},"content":{"rendered":"

Produced by the International Theatre Program<\/a> at the URochester, The Conduct of Life<\/em>\u2014by Cuban-American playwright Maria Irene Forn\u00e9s\u2014opens Thursday, April 25 and runs through May 4, at the University\u2019s Todd Theater.<\/p>\n

Forn\u00e9s mostly flew \u201cunder the radar,\u201d says Nigel Maister, artistic director of the International Theatre Program. \u201cShe was a contemporary of celebrated playwrights from Arthur Miller to Edward Albee, but perhaps partly because she was a woman, or a Cuban immigrant, or consistently more experimental in bent\u2014her work was marginalized in a way that theirs was not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Set in the 1970s in an unspecified South American country during a time of dictatorships and juntas, the gritty Obie Award-winning drama explores the political, sexual, and social dynamics of power, corruption, and abuse in a work that is both \u201cterrifying and tender.\u201d Its narrative follows a young army officer who, desperate to improve his standing with the government and army, engages in torture.<\/p>\n

The production incorporates the music of Argentinean and Chilean artists who inspired a musical genre and movement, nueva canci<\/em>\u00f3<\/em>n<\/em>\u2014a music known for contesting the political dictatorships of the times.<\/p>\n

Forn\u00e9s was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play And What of the Night<\/em>? in 1990. Her other notable works include Fefu and Her Friends<\/em>, Mud<\/em>, Sarita<\/em>, and Letters from Cuba<\/em>. She died in 2018 at the age of 88.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, April 27, there will be a free screening at 5 p.m., in the Todd Theater Lobby, of the documentary The Rest I Make Up,<\/a><\/em> a film that focuses on the playwright\u2019s creative life once dementia hindered her ability to write.<\/p>\n