Harold and Maude.

PLAY WRAPPED IN LOVE Bárbara Heliodora – O Globo newspaper For some unknown reason, I had never seen Harold and Maude on the stage or at the cinema. Thus, Colin Higgins’s story was totally new to me and, fortunately, a pleasant, fun and great novelty. The script’s greatest quality is the use of humor and theatricality, instead of a sentimental plot, to elicit the audience to feel and think.

The confused 20 year-old Harold and the sensible and joyful Maude, linked by the lack of love from the boy’s vain and hectic mother, Helen, provided Higgins with a potential raw-material, and the author used it very well in such a way that the three decades of its age are neither perceived, nor important. Undoubtedly, it was due to Arlindo Lopes´ dedication to his ideal of staging the play, at least partially, that the show is wrapped in a love atmosphere.

The staging is carefully and lightly builded: Sérgio Marimba’s beautiful scenic design, with see-through curtains that move sideways, apart and closer to each other, allows a great agility on the many changes of scenes and encourages the audience to use their imagination from just a few pieces of old furniture, while Kika Lopes’ costumes accurately identify each character both in their actual and symbolical situations. Renato Machado’s lighting design is very good as well as Rodrigo Penna’s soundtrack.

JOÃO FALCÃO’S DIRECTION MEETS THE EXACT KEY João Falcão’s direction meets the exact key in order to provide the mix of realism and quasi-dream, with richness of details created by the supporting cast who delivers a sound contribution in the building-up of Harold and Maude’s environment. The authoritarian insanity of Helen’s world is contrasted with the joy and peacefulness of Maude’s, with rhythms and traits that highlight the importance of their differences, which allow us to perceive the director’s enjoyment in the staging process…

All the cast is tuned in the script. The supporting cast, comprised of Veronica Valentin, Guilherme Siman, Walisson de Souza and Jamil Pedro, performs many different tasks, all relevant, all well-executed. Augusto Madeira is satisfactory in all his roles; Fernanda de Freitas, as the three candidates to be Harold’s fiancée, is confident in building each of them, and hilarious as the actress who confuses Harold’s mad behaviors with Romeo and Juliet; Ilana Kaplan is great as the woman whose only wish is to see her son fit into the system because of her concern with “what the others will say”. Arlindo Lopes makes his dream come true with a great performance: he does not overdo Harold’s extreme actions and gradually blooms as he is warmed up by Maude’s fondness. . Once more, Glória Menezes shows a great performance on the stage: her Maude is joyful, sincere, agile, imaginative, peaceful in her approach to life, charming in her simplicity. The integration of Arlindo’s and Glória’s works is impeccable, and the play delights the audience with its quality and warmth.