Almost 10 years after the premiere of “Lezama Park”, Edward White he once again puts himself in the shoes of Cardozo, a conformist building manager, almost blind and about to retire, who, very reluctantly, shares a park bench with León, the character of louis brandoni: an old man who, apart from being a compulsive liar, refuses to give up his dream of changing the world.
The play, close to completing a thousand performances, is one of the successes of the current Buenos Aires billboard, now at the new Teatro Politeama, whose main shareholder is Juan Jose Campanellawho also directs the play and was the one who adapted the piece written by Herb Gardner under the title “I am not Rappaport.”
As he knows that the interviewer saw the work a few days before, at the beginning of the talk, Blanco briefly reverses the roles of the interview and asks: “What did you think of Parque Lezama?”
News: An emotional, hilarious and reflective work. His performance and that of Brandoni, remarkable. I really enjoyed it a lot.
Edward White: Thank you so much. What you say is in line with what most people give us back. Not only now, but since we premiered it, in 2013. “Beto” Brandoni says that it is one of those works that does not end when the curtain goes down, that later, when you go to dinner, you have the need to continue with that story. Some even tell us that they felt the need to see her again with a loved one or to recommend her. You saw what happens at the end, with people standing up to applaud. Once Benjamín Vicuña came to see us and told us: “You do not receive a theatrical applause, it is a rock ovation”. “Parque Lezama” definitely has a “something else”.
News: What would that “something else” be?
White: It is like a hug to the soul, which invites you to live. The character of “Beto” wants to change the world and he can’t, but he makes me change, my character, who believed that he had already lived his life and that there was nothing else. One is used to being told stories, but this work covers an inevitable emotional sector, close to everyone, which produces something communal, of collective pleasure: “Parque Lezama” talks about ties, old age; and as a comedy that it is, it does so with humor and sharp irony. But it takes old age to tell another story, to tell us as a society. The original work is American and takes place in Central Park in New York, but if you don’t know it, you can safely believe that Campanella wrote it, because his adaptation made it his own work, very Argentine.
News: Has your character changed?
White: The main one was at the end of 2016, when we finished our previous stage in Buenos Aires. The last performance was on December 10 of that year, 10 days after my father, who had Parkinson’s, passed away. My character, in those creation processes, had to be a vulnerable old man, in contrast to “Beto”, who is a more energetic old man. In that process, I observed many old people, but in the end, unconsciously, I ended up making a mixture of my father and my grandfather.
News: In 2019 they did the work in Spain. Should they have changed something?
White: No, because we are carrying an Argentine play, which takes place in Parque Lezama. It is not that we went to Madrid and named it Parque Del Retiro. We only modify some words that don’t mean anything there or mean something else, like not calling the doorman, manager, because it’s not understood there.
News: And the reaction of the public was the same as here?
White: It was also great for us. We did it from Tuesday to Sunday, for four and a half months, because beyond cultural differences, we are all alike in human terms. About that, I’ll tell you something that happened to Campanella with Luna de Avellaneda. In 2005 he was invited to Antarctica, for the inauguration of a video store in an Argentine base; and before the screening, a rubber band appeared with people from a Korean base who also wanted to see it. The film was subtitled in English, but Juan thought: “What are the Koreans going to understand about a film that is very ours, that talks about neighborhood clubs?” But when he finished the show, they hugged him and said, “Just like in Korea.” What do I mean? That there are works that transcend cultures.
News: With whom did you study acting?
White: My first teacher, at the age of 17, was an unknown actor, Norberto Trujillo, in an independent theater group, where you do everything, you don’t just act: You also help to make the scenery, the costumes, to sell the tickets. Then I went to the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, I took courses with great teachers like Augusto Fernandes, Juan Carlos Gené and Carlos Ianni, but the one who taught me the love of theater was Trujillo.
News: In his youth he also played football.
White: Yes, but I’m ashamed to tell it, because really, it’s a small anecdote. I was good at playing soccer, but in the context of the neighborhood and the school, no more than that; and in seventh grade I went to test myself at Platense and I stayed. But it was a time when the marketing of the soccer player was not the same as now, many did not even finish high school; and my parents didn’t like the idea very much and They put up enough resistance to frustrate the great football career I would have had (laughs).
News: And how did they react when he told them he wanted to be an actor?
White: What happens is that it all started as a hobby. I didn’t decide to be an actor at 17. By family mandate, I had to be a mechanical engineer, because my father was a mechanic, passionate about mechanics; and that’s why I went to an industrial college, which I always hated, although I still received it. I am the eldest son of a family of Galician immigrants, and at that time, the dream of a university son, of social advancement, had a lot of weight. When I dared to tell them that he was not going to work as an engineer, I told them that he was going to be a lawyer, not an actor. But in the third law school entrance exam I asked myself what I was doing there and I left. I seriously wanted to be a lawyer, because I still believed in Justice, but just in case, I had also enrolled in the Conservatory.
News: He was also a merchant and drove a taxi.
White: Yes, I sold everything, but not in business. And as a tachero, in truth, I only had brief experiences, when between one off show and another —and later, between one TV strip and another— I had to pay my rent. My father had a taxi and that was a tool to earn a living when I didn’t have an acting job.
News: Did a passenger recognize you?
White: Few, but they didn’t recognize me by name, but by my face, by the last strip I had done. Also, I didn’t give them conversation, I only did it if they gave it to me, because I felt that this was a private moment for the passenger.
News: In Spain he acted a lot. How did she happen?
White: For “The Son of the Bride”, which is from 2001 and was also a success there. Then they bought “El misma amor, la misma lluvia”, which was earlier, but they sold it as from the same team as “El hijo de la novia”, because it was the same director, the same co-writer, the same actor and the same co-star. , which was me.
News: What was the last thing you did there?
White: A chapter of the last season of “Come Juan”, which can be seen in Flow. I was visiting my son, who lives there, and they called me. After “The Son of the Bride” I made many films that didn’t make it here. But I also did “Altamar”, which is on Netflix and I recorded it when I went to do “El Precio”, by Arthur Mlller, in theater. On Netflix there is also “Vientos de agua”, an Argentine-Spanish co-production.
News: How do you take being called Campanella’s fetish actor?
Blanco: I’m thankful, but I understand it because I was in almost all of his debuts, except for the sexual one (laughs).. In his first super 8 feature film I was one of the protagonists of it; in the first play that he wrote together with Fernando Castets I was one of the protagonists; I was also in the first commercial film he made in Argentina, “El misma amor…”. In the first miniseries that he directed, “Vientos de agua”, I was one of his partners and the protagonist of him; and in “Parque Lezama”, the first play he directed, I am one of the protagonists of it. But I never had a formal job offer from Campanella, they were always invitations to an adventure. Everything arose from a: “Che, what if we do such a thing?”, like two boys who are playing.
News: What is it like working with Brandoni?
White: I am going to use a very soccer metaphor. Throwing walls with “Beto” is easy, because he is a huge actor. He throws balls at your feet, to play little games, to make pipes. Brandoni is Messi.
News: In this storytelling, what remains to tell?
White: I’m not one to say: “Whoa! I did not do such a classic and I am already big ”. I sure didn’t read as much as there is; and If one day they offer me to do “Death of a Salesman”, I would do it with pleasure, but I have no pending bills. I really like that the stories surprise me.
by Sergio Nunez
