MinnPost is offering book clubs a chance to win tickets to see the first bilingual production of “The House of the Spirits”/”La Casa de los Espíritus,” at Mixed Blood Theatre.
Written by Latina playwright and songwriter Caridad Svich and adapted from Isabel Allende’s best-selling novel, the family saga — spanning the 1920s through the 1970s — is told from the point of view of Alba, the youngest of the three generations of women.
While held captive by a military government, Alba (played by Christina Acosta Robinson) relives the history of her clairvoyant grandmother and brutal grandfather.
The swirling memories — frightening and amusing, lyrical and fantastic — illuminate the stage as Alba records the Trueba family’s rise and fall, ultimately finding the strength to survive within her own story.
The new re-imagining of “The House of the Spirits” has been hailed as a bold and daring theatre piece that captures the force and sensuality of Allende’s vision through Svich’s unique poetic voice.
Directed by Marcela Lorca (“Caroline, or Change,” Guthrie Theater), Mixed Blood’s production of “Spirits” will be performed in English and Spanish and accessible to all theater-goers via projected translations.
Lorca,who came to the U.S. from Chile in 1983, says the Mixed Blood production will be strongly rooted in Chilean culture.
Isabel Allende was born in Peru but raised in Chile. After the overthrow and assassination in 1973 of her uncle, Salvador Allende, president of Chile, her family fled to Venezuela. While in exile, Allende began to write “The House of the Spirits,” her debut novel.
Based on Chilean history and Allende’s own family narrative, the novel focuses on the female experience, weaving myth and realism together.
Lorca’s staging captures the novel’s vibrant magical realism, emphasizing the power of memories and imagination.
Lorca has stated that she focused on exploring how the characters would visualize events — not how they actually happened.
“Spirits” will run from October 22 through November 14 at Mixed Blood’s historic firehouse theatre on the West Bank in Minneapolis. More details and a full performance calendar can be found here.
MinnPost is giving away 10 tickets to “The House of the Spirits.”
(Performance date undesignated.)
If you are in a registered BCC club and want to attend, send an email to bookclubclub [at] minnpost [dot] com by Friday, October 29 at 5 p.m. Please include your full name, the name of your club and the address to which tickets can be mailed. (To register your book club, click the link on the righthand column of this page.)
Mixed Blood Theatre is now in its 35th season; “The House of the Spirits” is its 12th bilingual production since 1999.
