BaqueStriBois

A contemporary documentary theater play, “BaqueStriBois” is part of an anthropological, social, and artistic investigation into gay male prostitution and dissident masculinities in Cuba. The research began in 2015, even though playwright and director José Ramón Hernández had been working on the themes for years.

The phenomenon was approached through direct contact with clients, fixed and independent hustlers, renters of meeting places, police officers, and lawyers, and the reading of studies on the activity carried out in Cuba and other countries since it is a global reality.

However, the work does not present the research findings from a sociological perspective. Instead, it focuses on the sensitive aspect: the violence and eroticism of the bodies and the masculinities that are empowered or subverted in the relationship between the spectator and their gaze.

According to playwright and researcher Yohayna Hernández, creation works physicality to its limit. The actor’s body as a risk zone.

A scenic landscape is built according to the actors’ operations with their bodies and other materials. The visuality combines some of the interventions’ roughness, brute force, and precariousness, like the rain of stones that fall on an actor’s body, the harshness of military training, and the body subjected to blows and mistreatment and humiliation.

Eroticism, sensuality, and fragility are also resized, as in the body that dances merengue and erases the hegemonic masculinity, inscribing another body onto the skin. Or in the playful body that finds pleasure in colliding with other bodies.

In the performance, bodily presence and mutability alternate with the irruption of other voices. A lawyer, a drag queen, two transsexuals, a client, and two prostitutes share life experiences, connections, and points of view in voice-over, video, or physically. A sound and a visual atmosphere are superimposed on these layers that recreate the spaces of Havana where these bodies and stories pass.

Who are they
Osikán – Vivero de Creación combines research and action to coexist with artists, specialists, activists, and communities. It imagines sensible strategies to enhance critical dialogues and repair social wounds in current life and work contexts. Founded in 2014 by José Ramón Hernández (1988), an Afro-Cuban interdisciplinary artist, teacher, and cultural manager. “BaqueStriBois” (2016) closes the Absence Trilogy, succeeding “Family Trash, Coreografía de la Ausencia” (2015) and “Aleja Tus Hijos del Alcohol, un Karaoke Escénico” (2014).

Datasheet
Dramaturgy and direction José Ramón Hernández
Playwright Yohayna Hernández
Gender consultancy and communication Marta María Ramírez
Performers Alain Cantillo Moreno, Gabriel Reyes e David Izaguirre
Expert in life Rufino Nápoles
Special guest Tila Rios
Scenic Project José Ramón Hernández e Roberto Ramos Mori
Design and audiovisual production Roberto Ramos Mori e Gabriel Estrada Reyes
Soundtrack design José Ramón Hernández e Oscar Sánchez
Original music Oscar Sánchez
Stagecraft Edson Luna
Lighting operation Felipe Tchaça
Production in Brazil Carla Estefan e Rafael Ferro
Production assistant Samuel Rodrigues
Legal Advice Martha Macruz
Production and broadcast in Brazil Metro Gestão Cultural