Sin Titulo (review)

The play " Sin titulo" by the acting group "Yuyachkani" was something very interesting and fresh to watch, it had elements i hadnt seen before like a "moving stage" or information on the walls, and overall the lighting, sounds, and scenery were stunning. One thing ive noticed by going to a few of Yuyachkani's plays is that they almost always show peruvian culture and issues it has had, and how those issues have shaped our society to what it is now. The experience of the play started just as i walked into the corridor which led to the stage, for the walls were full of phrases and objects that showed different stages in peruvian history, specially the most challenging ones like the war against Chile or the terrorism in the 80´s and 90´s. 

The stage wasnt fixed, it moved through the acting space throughout the play in the form of 4 big tables which moved from one place to another. This is something i hadnt seen in theatre before and at first it seemed like it wouldnt be that effective because people would block your sight, or myabe you were seeing the actors back, yet as the play continued it all seemed to come together and the audience learnt to adapt. One positive aspect of having this Changing stage is that it creates a different connection with the audience, it wasnt exactly full-on interaction but it made me feel closer to the action. 

In terms of lighting and sound effects i found them really effective, for example the part in which the jungle woman and the andean woman have statements written on their clothes the "students" (actors wearing student clothes) would illuminate the dresses so the audience could see and would drive everyones attention to specific spots, so i certainly think lighting was very helpful in terms of directing the audience's attention which was needed in this kind of stage. The sound effects and music were not only enjoyable but also had aspects of peruvian culture that contributed to the play, like when the school girl rings the bell and all of the attention immediately turns toward her, so they did prove effective. Something else that is almost always present on this acting group's plays is live music, the actors playing the instruments while on character, like the girl playing the accordeon, which is totally different than recorded muisc beacuse it also comes with an expression and mood the actor gives altogether.

The plot of the play, even though i recognized a few moments and symbols, wasnt all clear to me, i did get the notion that history teaches us things and that those things shouldnt be f orgotten so they do not happen again. basically what i found confusing was the sudden transitions between the moments in time and some historical groups and characters that i didnt either recognize or know about  like the grupo colina or the judges which seemed to "play" with the economy, yet i did get the message these were trying to transmit. The educational system was something i noticed was present throughout the play, first when the whole corrupt educational system was displayed, with the teacher being specially harsh on the children and putting pressures and ideas onto them, the uniform the kids wore were all the same, which was the case in Peru when the military government was in place; it showed a lack of individuality and psicological opression that originated in government passed on to the educational system and got to the children. The people pushing the table/carts were actors dressed as students, maybe giving the impression that even if we didnt live history, we learn it.

The actors did a very good job not only impersonating people from different ages/time/culture but also in making a smooth transition between them, for example when the christ and mary start transforming to andean people and then start performing rituals, this transition was special in the sense that it passed from one religious culture to another, also, actors showed a lot of different skills, like at the beggining when they were like static staues and they remaind like that for a long while which requires a lot of concentration, and as part of the audience i felt that sort of tension to know when they were going to start moving. There was a very good use of the levels on stage, not only interms of the positions of the actors bodies but also the positions on the stage, like the man who wrote on his typewriter at the top, and the christ which was laying below one of the acting tables. And as mentioned before, the live music and singing also displayed unique qualities that blended perfectly with the play.

Overall it was a play that even if i didnt fully understand, i really enjoyed watching and it left me with many different questions about my own culure and my country's history that i want to know about, and the innovative way that they used lights sound and space really broadened my view of what theatre can be like, it opened my mind to new possibilities, which is one of the reasons i always like going to plays by Yuyachkani, they always have something new for me to see and learn.