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EN UN SOL AMARILLO
written and directed by César Brie
Teatro de Los Andes at Center Theatre Group's Douglas Theatre, Culver City, CA
Script
Production
Performance
Gonzalo Callejas and Lucas Achirico
Photo: Craig Schwartz
On May 22, 1998, three cities and five farming communities in Bolivia endured a shattering earthquake. This work stitches together various oral histories to re-create the event in a vivid, moving production.
“En Un Sol Amarillo” – Memorias De Un Temblor (which in English means "In a Yellow Sun” – Memories of an Earthquake) is a luminous import. It is performed by a small, intensely dedicated group from Bolivia that excels under the guidance of writer-director, César Brie. Shrewdly enhanced by the musical coordination of Lucas Achirico and Pablo Brie, the eighty-minute piece (which is performed in Spanish with projected English translations) balances evocations of pain, suffering and loss of life with shafts of black humor. By the end, we understand how nature can change all our lives in a single instant.
Gonzalo Caleljas uses startlingly fresh designs. He hangs furniture, doorways, and empty picture frames (like detached windows) from heavy ropes. When the earthquake strikes, everything swings in all directions, including the actors. They are struck by the objects and in turn swing them back. Assorted clothes, stacked in a heap on the floor and surrounded by dirt, also play a role, as does the dramatically lit dirt itself. The script describes what it's like to lose everything that was once dear to them.
Luca Achirico, Daniel Aguirre, Gonzalo Callejas and Alice Guimaraes comprise the cast, and each is remarkable. They play all the roles from a doctor, or parents, to the President of Bolivia. Evocative sound effects add to the unsettling feeling; some, such as the sound of the wind or wolves, are created by the actors.
Most of those who perished in the eartherquake were children, asleep in their beds. Equally powerful are the sequences dramatizing the difficulty of the clean up. After an outbreak of abuse and robbery, we are reminded of the empty promises made by local politicians. Audience participation is encouraged: small, tangerine-size spitballs are passed out to be thrown at the stage in an act of collective protest. A slow, haunting funeral march passes by repeatedly that vividly expresses the population’s heartbreak. This rare collaboration of writer, director and performers mixes words and physical movement together, effortlessly.
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