Bizarre nights: a South American Moulin Rouge and the cap

A sign with three breasts greets the audience and tells them: “Let others be normal.” Noches Bizarras (Bizarre Nights) is a show spearheaded by the trans-South American artist Susy Shock, bringing together emerging actors, musicians, and dancers. Presentes spoke with Susy about this cabaret variety show that has been touring Buenos Aires for thirteen years. Susy Shock is a…

November 25, 2016

A sign with three breasts greets the audience and tells them: “Let others be normal.” Noches Bizarras (Bizarre Nights) is a show spearheaded by the trans-South American artist Susy Shock, bringing together emerging actors, musicians, and dancers. Presentes spoke with Susy about this cabaret variety show that has been touring Buenos Aires for thirteen years.

Susy Shock is a "trans South American bagualera poet" who blends rhythms of South American folklore with lyrics that address sexual dissidence and the importance of understanding trans children. Author of poetry collections and a children's book, with a film in production, she has been invited to events throughout the region. With a mystique that draws her followers to see her as if to a pagan mass, Susy also works in the realms of performance art and acting. And then there are the bizarre nights, parties where Susy acts as hostess.

If we think of the realm of artistic expression as a place where an underground exists, that is, a "below," induction creates an above, an "on the stage." For Susy Shock, "Noches Bizarras" (Bizarre Nights) are neither underground nor on, because in the thirteen seasons she has been performing as a performative mix that resists definition, she has moved both on stage and on the floor, with sound systems that are a cappella, wildly crazy, and sane. Cabaret variety show, where a sign with three breasts that says "let others be normal" explains a bit about what this mutant is all about, the infamous offspring of the third breast that, it is said, Batato Barea showed to the world in his last performances at Mediomundo, the Rojas Cultural Center, and the Parakultural.

“I see Bizarre Nights as a space that gives rise to those who move along the fringes of art. That's why the audience and cast keep changing, because we are constantly transforming. It's a zone of construction and error; where failure is part of success: valuing failure as an aesthetic fact, from the edges of identity,” Susy Presentes

Ritual of the borders

Cabaret Noches Bizarras was born in the midst of the economic crisis and social upheaval of 2001 in a Buenos Aires cultural space called Giribone, where artists from theater, music, and improvisation converged. They came together out of an urgent need to express themselves in a time when chaos was the norm and they had to invent possibilities through sheer desire. After Giribone, they wandered from place to place, including a long stay at El Burlesque, a small bar in the Congreso neighborhood.

Tonight, Las Bizarras perform at El Emergente , with a cabaret-style spectacle reminiscent of a "South American Moulin Rouge," where mysterious figures in bowler hats greet you, others hang from a fabric, and bodysuits, legs, and beards dance choreographed routines. Throughout the night, there are sketches that vary and others that have become classics, such as the hotline chat , the cholita who lost her temper, or the teacher who abuses alcohol.

“This year we have a beautiful, renewed cast. I think Pauli Garnier is undoubtedly the founding axis of this new era, with a very personal and at the same time generous style, also with a super band, Talkin to Machine, which is a vital part of the Nights. I've changed because now I'm a kind of aunt who hovers in the shadows, fluttering around: there are so many wonderful young people who I love having here and being a part of it. Giancarlo Scrocco, José Busacca, Emiliano Carrazzone, Sol Tunni, Carola Vázquez. We are a community network for making theater, proof that we can come down from many different places to keep playing together,” said Susy.

And in that framework, what does Susy weave?: “In the plot of these nights, I am the madam of the edges.”

*Cabaret Noches Bizarras presents itself today at midnight at El Emergente Bar, Francisco Acuña de Figueroa 1031. Free admission, donations accepted.

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