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 LOS INCONTADOS
​Anatomía de la violencia en Colombia: un tríptico

Mapa Teatro

Perhaps it would be most informative simply to list some of the objects still visible on the stage at the play’s conclusion, once the actors and audience have departed: a wooden cabinet, its glass doors open; a wheeled table; a glass of milk, a pitcher; long, shiny streamers covering almost everything; a broken couch; a radio; a mic stand and microphone; a lot of potted plants; desk lamps; rugs; a combination karaoke machine and television; a wicker chair; popped balloons; unpopped balloons; a fake cake; masks.
 
In its exploration of violence in Colombia, centered mostly on Pablo Escobar and the drug trade, Los Incontados experiments with a huge variety of sounds and images. The play cycles through a series of “triptychs,” each set up like a diorama, with actors drifting in and out of tableaux: first, a living room; then the back wall opens to reveal a debaucherous party, the Día de los Santos Inocentes; then the back wall opens yet again to reveal a wooded area. Within and among these layers are others – a small curtain concealing and then revealing a musician; a screen with projections.
 
The triptych from the start is already a tetraptych: downstage a massive glass wall separates stage from audience (when the play ends, the lighting will briefly shift to turn this glass into a mirror, showing the audience the image of itself, applauding). There is broadcast sampling, marching-band-style music played by a family, karaoke, traditional music, rap, a lilting spoken-word piece about cocaine. There is a magician, a storyteller, a Lynchian dream sequence about illegal “soap,” archival footage. There is a fog machine. Above all, the effect is one of overwhelming visual and auditory saturation, and by the play’s conclusion, against all logic, one suspects the stage really might recede infinitely, a background with infinite regress. 


Annelyse for DRAFF

The Festival of International New Drama (FIND) runs at the Schaubühne, Berlin from the 30th March - April 9th. Image: Felipe Camacho

Posted: 10 April 2017
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