Tivoli BBVA Theatre
Saturday, November 12, 9pm
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"Si te portas mal en esta vida,
en la otra te conviertes en Chileno"
Raul Ruiz
One of the most prestigious film and theater actors, John Malkovich, presents The Infamous Ramirez Hoffman, an unpublished show in Portugal, whose title is taken from the last chapter of The Nazi Literature in the Americas (1996), by the Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño, and which later gave rise to the novel Estrela Distante, by the same author.
The Infamous Ramirez Hoffman is a piece adapted from the novel Nazi literature in the Americas by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño. The book features fictional histories of imaginary Nazis, most all of whom have some connection, however tenuous, to the literary world - both the real one and Bolaño’s completely invented one. Though I did adapt quite a number of the stories, I decided in the end to concentrate on the story of Carlos Ramirez Hoffman. Perhaps someday I will return to visit the other characters in a part 1 or in some other, entirely different form.
The Infamous Ramirez Hoffman tells the story of a writer for whom aesthetics overlaps with ethics and who considers that the work should be valued above any human ideal. An anonymous narrator tells us about the fictional story of Ramirez Hoffman: a right-wing writer who takes advantage of the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, who deposed President Salvador Allende, to launch a poetry campaign that encompasses torture and murder.
The book The Nazi Literature in the Americas portrays, in an encyclopedic way, a set of fictional biographies of imaginary Pan-American authors. These literary Nazis are depicted in a gallery of alienated people, snobs, egocentrics and criminals. In fact, Bolaño admitted that this book was based on the world of letters, and on some of its writers, now heroes, or despicable beings.
The play is considered a one-man show, centered on the character played by Malkovich, the aforementioned Ramirez Hoffman, and who is accompanied on stage by the musical arrangements of Anastasya Terenkova, with whom she had collaborated on Report on the Blind in 2017.
Data sheet:
John Malkovich Narrator
So-Ock Kim Violin
Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi Bandoneon
Anastasya Terenkova Piano
Production Swiss GART GmbH
Performances in English, subtitles in Portuguese