La Strada – Comedy And Tragedy On The Road
by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 23, 2011
The concept of adapting La Strada (the 1954 film by masterful auteur Federico Fellini) for the stage is a daring one. And not just daring, but ambitious as well. It’s not easy to take a pre-existing work and re-envision it — on the one hand you’ve got to make sure that you keep the familiar bones of the piece in tact, while at the same time you must recognize and realize the opportunity for innovation.
La Strada Company, a New York based Spanish company, has done a lot of things well in their adaption and – even more – directors Rene Buch and Jorge Merced conceived a lot of things brilliantly. Yet in their excitement to present a unique piece of theatre which deviates from the film they make a few pacing choices which make this interpretation feel like two separate shows rather than a cohesive whole. There is a difference between exploring a theme and giving it a predominant vein versus letting it completely take over and run away with the first part of your production. La Strada is masterful, brilliant, beautiful, stirring, touching and wonderful — but not until about a third into the show.
