Theatrical adventure explores Eva Peron's life

Every once in a while a mythic figure appears in history, someone so large they captivate the imagination of millions. Such was Eva Peron, the wife of Argentinean President Juan Peron, a woman born into poverty who rose to legendary heights before dying at age 33 of cancer.

John Ullyatt and Annie Dugan, the husband and wife cofounders of Firefly Theatre, were so intrigued by Peron’s accomplishments and the polar emotions she created — unflinching adoration from the poor and loathing from the upper crust — that they’ve created Operation EVAsion.

This salute to a woman equally loved and hated is a 75-minute fusion of aerial arts, narrative, multi-media and tango. It runs for three days as part of Workshop West’s Realtor Canoe Theatre Festival on Jan. 21 to 23 at the Second Playing Space at the University of Alberta’s Timms Centre.

Dugan first came across Peron while watching a production at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre. “At the back of the program, there was a passage of the 16-year odyssey of her corpse. I had this image of her dressed in white posed in the air as if she was in a coffin,” says Dugan, also known as roving artist Hoola Hoop Annie at the International Children’s Festival.

“I started looking for books. I don’t trust the Internet as a first source and I collected about 12 books on Eva and Juan. Santa Evita by Tomas Eloy Martinez became a major source. He describes the corpse and how it was stored for three years and embalmed and how duplicates were made.”

Last spring, she and Ullyatt, the show’s director, travelled to Argentina for more concrete research. “Her life was astonishing — what she did, what she changed. No wife had ever been involved in a political campaign and no woman had ever attended political meetings. She did this all even before she was married.”

Dugan goes on to explain that the Perons were trying to redistribute the imbalance of wealth in Argentina. Eva Peron took over several government posts and appropriated some homes from the wealthy and turned them into shelters for battered women.

“There’s a deep mythology about her. The black mythology comes from those who hated her and called her a bad actress and gold digger. The white mythology is from the people who thought she was a saint who helped millions. I look at both ideas in the play and look to find the truth. Is there a middle ground? In this case, not really.

“But I once heard Kenny Rogers give an interview. He said, ‘When I write something I set it up with a theme. I take you on a journey and leave you with an emotion,’ and that’s what I want to do.”