Viva la Llbertad!

To honor Simon Bolivar, Bogota's Teatro Colon scheduled a new French play about El Libertador's fight for freedom, entitled Montserrat. The Ministry of Education gave its blessing; President Laure-ano Gomez himself went to the opening-night performance.

Montserrat, which enjoyed a brief Broadway run last year in an English adaptation by Lillian Hellman, hammers hard against the brutal Spanish tyranny that Bolivar battled to overthrow. (Sample: "You live under the domination of men who are ferocious and pitiless. Do you have no pride? Do you not want to rebel against assassins?") Members of the audience, all of whom had been living for 18 months under a state of siege imposed by the Conservative government, loudly applauded every reference to liberty. One man even rose and shouted, "Viva la libertad!"

President Gomez left before the end of the second act. Two days later the show closed. Reason: its government subsidy had been withdrawn.

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