"So go, if you're able"... ["Che Guevara"? character in Evita]

Morwen Edhelwen

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..."to somewhere unstable,
and stay there!
Whip up your hate
In some tottering state"
Waltz for Eva and Che, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

So Che in Evita isn't meant to be Guevara. But this verse in the Waltz for Eva and Che seems to refer to pre-revolutionary Cuba (at least that's the common interpretation I've seen). Does anyone think that Che in Evita is a highly-fictionalised Guevara? if these words don't refer to Cuba, what do they mean? And what the hell is the forgotten brigade in the first verse? Does anyone here have a clue?
 
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scarletpeaches

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Allow me to help you slink off to the sidelines and mock your adieu with three cheers...
 
maxmordon

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Well, Che has the advantage of meaning roughly "Dude" in Argentine Spanish. (Making Guevera simply as The Dude Guevara) so I think in the movie they wanted to go more of a Greek chorus/Everyman approach than what I have seen in the stage show.

As such, I always thought the lyrics more about those who take exile due to a dictatorship (such as Perón's) because life in their respective countries become unbearable.
 

Morwen Edhelwen

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scarletpeaches said:
Allow me to help you slink off to the sidelines and mock your adieu with three cheers...
Click to expand...

Scarletpeaches, I've always heard "mark" your adieu with three cheers, or sometimes "I'll pay your fare with three cheers." But it's the same sentiment, whatever line it is- "I'll be so relieved when you're out of here-" a good response to that "Tell me before I seek worthier pastures" (ie this country's bad, there're other places that are much better) The only difference is in the phrasing- one seems more tactful than the other.
 
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regdog

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Che is a fictional character based on Che Guevara. The forgotten brigade could be referring to those Eva exiled from Argentine during her husband's rule. She exiled hundreds if not thousands.
 

Morwen Edhelwen

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regdog said:
Che is a fictional character based on Che Guevara. The forgotten brigade could be referring to those Eva exiled from Argentine during her husband's rule. She exiled hundreds if not thousands.
Click to expand...

The Che character was inspired by Tim Rice's research into Guevara.
 
dragonjax

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Ah, Wikipedia, how I love you.

Rice suggested that they create a character known as Che to serve as a narrator and Greek chorus.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_chorus It was not his intention to base him on Che Guevara, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevarabut when Harold Prince later became involved with the project, he insisted that the actors portraying Che use Guevara as a role model.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evita_(musical)#cite_note-3 (reference: Citron, Stephen, Sondheim & Lloyd-Webber: The New Musical (2001). New York: Oxford University Press, page 233) In the 1996 film adaptation, the character returned to his more anonymous roots. This was also the case for the 2006 London revival. (reference: Programme notes, 2006 London production)
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Morwen Edhelwen

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Tim Rice said that the character was inspired by CG- not overtly as he later became in the Harold Prince staging, but he says he was looking through a book and found a biography of Guevara alongside a biography of Peron, discovered that CG was Argentinian, and got inspired to create the chorus figure/narrator. Based on, but not exactly.
 
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Morwen Edhelwen

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Found this article, from the Boston Phoenix, "Banderas and Madonna kiss up". In it, Antonio Banderas says this about his portrayal of Che in the movie:
"We didn't use the icon of Ché Guevara because that would have made the film a confrontation between two political ideologies, which it is not," he says. "But inside me I was portraying Ché Guevara before he knew he was going to be Ché Guevara. This guy has political principles completely against those of Evita. Yet he's attracted to her. /QUOTE]

"Playing Che Guevara before he knew he was going to be Che Guevara?" This may just be the actor's own interpretation of the role, but after finding out what I did about how Tim Rice came to create the Che character, this confirms to me that Che is a highly-fictionalised Guevara, used as a chorus/everyman figure to represent Eva's opponents. In some stage productions, the inspiration is overt but in other ones, the everyman aspects are emphasised.
Click to expand...
 
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