“Peer Reviewed” is a series in which Honors students can share their thoughts and interpretations of art, literature, theatre, film, and other forms of popular media.
But this one’s a little different.
I’m going to be talking about The Theatre School’s Killing of a Gentleman Defender (now playing until Mar. 10), but not from the perspective of an objective or removed audience member. Rather, I want to talk about–and quite frankly, promote–the show as someone who has worked on and watched the show grow from rehearsal room to stage.
I’m a fourth-year Dramaturgy & Dramatic Criticism major at The Theatre School and Killing of a Gentleman Defender was the final production assignment of my undergraduate career. As a dramaturg, my basic responsibilities are varied and typically adapt to the unique needs of each production I work on. Generally speaking, though, it is my job to conduct research around the world of the play and gather any and all relevant materials that may help me visualize and verbalize that world for the creative team. Frequently, though not always, this means that I help describe and contextualize the historical events and periods within a script.
Such was certainly the task ahead of me when assigned to Killing of a Gentleman Defender. The play, written and directed by Carlos Murillo, weaves together quite a few histories into one comprehensive narrative. Killing of a Gentleman Defender follows the story of Martín, a Colombian-American playwright hired to devise a play with students from Chicago’s South and West Sides about violence in the city. Conflicted by what appears to him to be an exploitative assignment from a Northside institution, Martín and the students instead create a play about the 1994 murder of Colombian soccer star Andrés Escobar, hoping that their metaphor will start a more meaningful conversation. In doing so, the students tap into not only the history of one man but into a whole era of Colombian history, and a history of their own city as well.
Andres Escobar deflects a ball into Colombia’s goal at World Cup 1994
On July 2, 1994, beloved Colombian defender Andrés Escobar was shot six times in the parking lot of a Medellín nightclub, assassinated at only 27 years old. This tragedy came shortly after Colombia’s disastrous loss at the 1994 World Cup, where Andrés Escobar infamously scored a goal against his own team in the second match. Escobar’s murder has not only been immortalized as a gruesome story of sports fanaticism but also a testament to a brutal and devastating period of Colombian history, a time when cocaine was king. And the man who wore the crown? Just happened to be an Escobar himself.
A lot of my research on this project focused on the intersection of Pablo Escobar, the Colombian cocaine trade, and the meteoric success of Colombian soccer in the early 1990s. As you will see in Killing of a Gentleman Defender, this relationship is a major thread throughout the play. Though Pablo Escobar had already been killed in his La Catedral estate by the events of the 1994 World Cup, his leadership position in the Medellín cartel had an undeniable role in Colombia’s placement in the tournament. One of the world’s wealthiest men throughout the 1980s, Pablo Escobar invested in the Medellín football club Atlético Nacional as a way to both launder his billions and to ensure that the city, and the country, had a symbol of national pride to rally behind. When rivaling cartels around Colombia heard of this, they too invested in their respective clubs. This influx of money meant that Colombian teams could now afford the best facilities, the best staff, and the best players who now had a vested interest in staying in their home cities instead of playing abroad. Star players like René Higuita, Carlos Valderrama, Freddy Rincòn, and Andrés Escobar (no relation to Pablo) became national darlings and beacons of hope during a time of strife and anxiety.
Soccer’s relationship to politics and national trauma becomes part of the metaphor at the center of the play. The students are trying to grapple with city violence through theatre. Was Colombia doing the same with soccer? And what happens when harsh reality breaks through this metaphor?
If you’re interested in seeing Killing of a Gentleman Defender— and I so hope that you do!–consider attending the Honors outing this Thursday, March 7th. I will be there leading a post-show discussion, and I would love to hear thoughts from my fellow Honors students! More info can be found here.
About the Author!
Liz Bazzoli is a fourth-year Honors student majoring in Dramaturgy/Dramatic Criticism with a double major in Media and Cinema Studies and a minor in the History of Art and Architecture. They are also one of the editors of the Honors blog and an Honors office student worker.
Leave a Reply