Chicho: the beauty of Augusto Bitter
15 Mar 2019

by Drew Rowsome - Photos by Dahlia Katz and Graham Isador

Chicho is a must-see if only for the opportunity to see Augusto Bitter (Iphigenia and the Furies, Lear, The Monument) centrestage and in full flight. Up close and personal is an understatement. When I interviewed Bitter before the first incarnation of Chicho, which I tragically did not get to see, he described a deeply heartfelt piece dealing with his identity as a Venezuelian immigrant and his desire to be beautiful. That play is still there but the crisis, another understatement, in Venezuela has added an urgent subplot and a political cri de couer to Chicho.

The two threads co-exist uneasily but almost pull together through the metaphor of the avocado, in this case a very vocal avocado. The individual scenes in Chicho are spectacular and the anger and fear over the destruction of Venezuela fuel Bitter into a frenzy of passionate irony, acknowledging his privilege and bemoaning it at the same time. He is dealing with some very heavy stuff - just a recitation of the numerical facts about the crisis is devastating - and it can't help but supersede the more intimate revelations and dilemmas. So Chicho is not only about Bitter's intersectional identity, it becomes about a country's identity as well.

The link is beauty, the beauty of Venezuela and Bitter's quest to see himself as beautiful. There is a telling segment where Bitter incarnates a Venezuela beauty queen and describes how artificial enhancements are part of the necessity of achieving natural beauty. That dovetails with another powerful segment where Bitter wishes that the Latin lover he meets after his "Aryan" boyfriend, would, "Fuck in Spanish." That it all coalesces with the metaphor of Venezuela's oil reserves and again that avocado, shows just nimble Bitter's mind is and how high the stakes have become.

Perhaps the thread about Bitter's personal beauty - Chicho begins with a large shrouded mirror that is a versatile prop though the sheet over it becomes more crucial and more dominant - faded not only because of the urgency in Venezuela, but also because Bitter's physical appeal can't be denied. By leading man standards, by racist Hollywood leading man standards, Bitter would be considered wabi sabi. However he is so expressive, big eyes and "big lips" have advantages, and gets such delight from the erotic heat he generates wriggling out of his "uniform" to writhe in short shorts, that I doubt there was an audience member of any sexual inclination that wasn't wondering if they could somehow take a crash course in how to fuck in Spanish.

Bitter is intense and the character of Chachi - a sort of game show host or mondo master of ceremonies - pushes the edge of aggressivity in some audience participation segments that push the edge of that form's already dubious appeal. It is a credit to Bitter's skill and charisma that he holds it all together and keeps the audience so spellbound that there is no time to question where it is all going. And the urgency with which Bitter performs transcends the need for tidy endings. For Venezuela, for talented queer immigrants, there aren't necessarily going to be tidy endings. It is too soon to put a tidy bow on either thread, both are still in flux. Bitter's journey is just beginning, Chicho is one hell of a showcase.