The heart of the selfish giant

This selfish giant grew a heart. One that is a beating organ, feeling and center of the matter. “That day the giant's heart shrank as he looked outside,” says a line from the story that Oscar Wilde published in 1888. What would happen if that heart could speak? That question defined and articulates this particular theatrical version, written by Manuela Infante and directed by Juan Pablo Peragallo, which seeks to unravel the classic story. 

Here the selfish giant is called Eliodoro, a man with a lot of power and money who is on the verge of death due to heart disease. In that agony, the voice of his heart begins to sound from the machine that marks his heartbeat. What does it say? He tells him the story of Oscar Wilde. Or he tries, with the help of “beings” who will become everything necessary to do it, from children and flowers to birds and snow. Along the way they will talk about subjectivity, politics, gender, cycles, death and, of course, private property. 

From the Minions to Ricardo Montaner. In the work there are also pop references, humor and contingency. The director set himself the challenge of bringing to the theater the renewal of the family genre that Pixar and DreamWorks did in the cinema. That is: conceiving a work that works for children and adults, and that, from a particular language, builds a new perspective that allows entertainment and reflection. 

The story chosen was The Selfish Giant, mainly because, according to Peragallo, "I began to listen to the topic of inequality too much. And I think it has to do with something that we are probably forgetting in our daily lives. Asking ourselves why we are selfish is a way that seems concrete and healthy to confront the issue." 

The outstanding playwright Manuela Infante makes her debut in the family theater with this rewriting of The Selfish Giant that seeks to demolish the moral, to remove the negative sign from selfishness to try to open the question of why we are. Peragallo entrusted it to Infante because of the closeness they have after years working together in the Teatro de Chile company (Zoo, Cristo), but also because of "The very simple humor that manages to ask deep questions and interesting reflections. It opened a door that allowed me to contaminate the family genre with reflection without it becoming heavy." 

Marcelo Alonso and Amparo Noguera also make their debut in the family theater, playing Eliodoro and his heart. Amparo is a heart that beats stutteringly, sensitive, reflective and with a deep fear of death. And this giant, according to the director, “is better off than in the story, because in this version his blindness is one that we could all have and also because he manages to enter a sensitive space.” A place from which you can say things like "I'm afraid it's not about being happy and that's it. Because for some reason I feel like I'm missing something." 

On stage there are choreographies, music, rear projections and shadow theater, a technique that Peragallo had already explored in his previous foray into family theater: Baltazar, a king getting smaller every day. The aesthetics of the scenery and costumes are inspired by the paper in stories, the wrinkled leaves and the folds of origami. 

Dramaturgy: Manuela Infante
Direction: Juan Pablo Peragallo
Cast: Marcelo Alonso, Amparo Noguera, Francisco Medina, Guilherme Sepúlveda, María Paz Grandjean, Natalia Valladares, Valentina Parada and Giannina Fruttero
Director assistance:Julio Lobos
Musical composition: Daniel Marabolí
Scenography and lighting design: Rocío Hernández
Costume design: Loreto Monsalve
Illustrations: Marcela Gueny
Rear projections operator: Cecilia Yáñez
Production: GAM, Call 2016.
Production Manager: Francisca Babul

Previous seasons

The work premiered at GAM on July 8, 2016 and was on display until July 30.