Hemingway Returns to Cuba
Photos by Caridad
HAVANA TIMES, June 18 — Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) came to life on Friday thanks to Canadian actor and playwright Brian Gordon Sinclair who delighted his audience in a one-only performance at the Ambos Mundos Hotel in Old Havana.
In Deadly Ernest is the final installment of Sinclair’s one-man chronological series of seven plays on the life of the author titled “Hemingway on Stage: The Road to Freedom.”
The play begins with the arrival in Cuba of Hemingway’s fourth wife Mary Welsh and concludes with the decision of the author to take his life amid poor health.
The performance took place in English – with a simultaneous head-set interpretation – as part of the 13th International Ernest Hemingway Colloquium (June 16-19) and included the presence of the Canadian ambassador to Cuba, Matthew Levin.
The Ambos Mundos Hotel is decorated with memorabilia of Hemingway’s years in Cuba.
The Ernest Hemingway Museum, that includes the author’s 9,000 book library, invited Sinclair to present his play in Cuba. The tourist attraction is located on the outskirts of Havana at the Finca Vigia.
The US based Finca Vigia Foundation and Cuban institutions collaborate in the effort of its restoration and preservation.
For additional information on the series of plays on Hemingway visit: www.briangordonsinclair.com
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My English Literature teacher at school was a great admirer of the works of Ernest Hemingway and I do believe a considerable amount of his love of Hemingways writing rubbed off on to me.
I only wish I had been in Cuba to see this but sadly had to return to the UK before the performance.
It’s odd, but in the UK most people in the Uk when asked about Hemingway can readily mention ‘The old man and the sea’ even though most have never read it but very few can name any other works of Hemingway.
Sad but true.
Terence