"Sin Titulo"

Description:

On friday 14th, in the cultural center of Yuyachkani located in Magdalena, we went to see the play "Sin Titulo" made and presented by the Peruvian ensemble itself Yuyachkani which explores the tragic past of the Peruvian culture, encouraging the audience to form part of the disastrous history innocent Peruvians have passed through.  Therefore, this collective presentation engages the audience to acknowledge the political disorder, corruption, wars and terrorist activities innocent Peruvians have lived through from 1879 until the present day. 

Analysis:
In the following essay, design elements such as the scenery and props, acting techniques like body and face expressions and the plot of the play that contributed with the creation of an chaotic atmosphere will be analyzed to reflect the main purpose of the play, helping benighted individuals to recover memories of the past that affected negatively the peruvian culture. 

Firstly, the audience is invited to participate in the discovery of Peru's haunted past, the internal armed conflict leaded by the Sendero Luminoso terrorist party which evolved from a small radical cell to a guerilla army in an attempt to replace the Peruvian government with a centralized revolutionary regime.
This tragic background was transmited by the use of a messy scenery where many papers, articles, photographs, television broadcasting Sendero Luminoso's attacks and other props were found distributed in a small hall that the audience was previously invited into to acknowledge key events of the past to understand the play and create a connection with their roots and identity. As effect, this created in the audience a sense of empathy and loss since now they were aware of the misery Peru passed through; the constant military attacks affected innocent civilians negatively. As the auditorium walls were covered in black paint this helped in emphasizng the white quotations on the walls, the several newspapers hanging on strings, several magazines about the civil war which catched the audience's attention and make them feel in an opressed atmosphere where chaos is pereceived everywhere. Therefore, the colour palette of dark colours was used effectively to recall that this presentation is a sign of protest where the past must never be forgotten.

Another interesting characteristic of the scenery was that this play wasn't like other Yuyachkani collective plays, instead of the audience surrounding the actors, the actors formed part of us as well as we formed part of them. When entering to the actual stage, the audience was able to look detailly at the different sectors of the stage; the mannequins with the face of politicians like Fujimori and Guzman, photographs of the war of the pacific, a fish-net covering old photographs of indigenous communities, quotations and stories of catastrophic scenarios occured in Peru and others.  This is proved in one of the sectors where there is a sector where a fish net covered a wall filled with letters, date about indigenous children being sended to the army, photographs of indigenous communities threatened by the military and more. Therefore, by the use of the fish net it created a sensation of entrapment since the innocent indigenous children of the jungle were severly affected and obligated to form part of the army, risking their health and life. Since the  entire stage was covered with black paint; the photographs, letters, the fish net and other elements of this sector contrasted incredibly and excelled from the wall; creating a sense of community to unite peruvians to stand up and fight against the omission of this event to reach justice. Also, this created self awareness and remineded the audience the damage the corrupt governor Fujimori did to the Ashanika indigenous community that resides in the amazonic jungle of Peru.

Moreover, design elements and acting areas were strongly linked together to have a stronger impact on the audience. In terms of the historical context of the play, the internal armed conflict and terrorism era affected the most indigenous civilians. With the use of the props, Ana Correa was able to express with face gestures and body expression the suffering and chaotic situation indigenous women lived through. This is portrayed when Ana Correa on a moving platform represented the voice of all indigenous women who have once suffered of the unfair sterilizations the government of Alberto Fujimori did with the purpose to decrease the birth rate in the poorer sectors of Peru.(1990-2000). In “Sin Título”, Ana Correa sat on a cube and with the use of a ceramic pot with fire; she placed it near her private area of the body. By the use of the ceramic pot as prop, she expresses the pain and suffering the "burning" all indigenous women suffered through due to this new law established since they lost unjustly the ability to have a baby, which is metaphorically illustrated through the flame of fire that represented the destruction and loss. In terms of the acting technique of Ana Correa, by shouting loudly with a frustrating face expression while shaking the pot with fire was making a sign of protest as she made the audience feel completely surprised, ashamed, and anguished with Fujimori's cruel control of the government as he committed genocides and crimes against humanity's laws of life. Thus contributing even more to the chaotic scenery and environment created since it made benighted Peruvians realized the harsh treatment they received while being under the regime of Fujimori.

Finally, the plot of the play is about Peruvian history as it explores the chaos peruvian citizens lived through such as the war of the Pacific (1879), the internal armed conflict (1980), the era of terrorism and corruption and others. Yuyachkani presented the play as a memoir of Peru's past and how it must not be forgotten since it is the key for Peru's evolution. Therefore, the uniqueness of the play lies in the interactive mechanisms it uses with the audience. In this case, the audience feels included in every single moment of the play. For example, the characters act in wheeled platforms to represent different portraits of peruvian legends coming to life such as the widow of Miguel Grau, an indigenous woman, a nun and several more; each telling their story. These wheeled platforms move throughout the entire stage simultaneously while the actor made it's character come to live, which is suggested with the instant movement of the platforms while Augusto Casafranca is writing the exact information the actor is saying; except the difference lies in that while Augusto is writing "sin titulo", the other actors of Yuyachkani are making words come to life. This creates an intimate connection between the actors and the audience since the actor give the ilusion that the audience has travelled back in time.

Connections: 
When seeing the play "Sin titulo" it reminded me about the previous play we went to see of the Yuyachakani ensemble "Cartas a Chimbote" which explored Jose Maria Arguedas life as he lived in the era of terrorism in Peru which was originated by the terrorist and leader of the subversive organization Sendero Luminoso, Abimael Guzman. Inclusive, during the play a reference towards Jose Maria Arguedas was made " despidan de mi un tiempo del Perú (...) en la que cualquier hombre no engrilletado o embrutecido por el egoísmo puede vivir,feliz, todas las patrias" since he lived in the age of chaos as other innocent peruvians who did'nt deserve living through the tragic and horrible era of terrorism. Therefore, this era affected him negatively as his depression leaded him to his painful and peaceful suicide. 

Reflection:
In conclusion, the yuyachkani peruvian ensemble achieved succesfully its main purpose when presenting the different events that marked Peru drastically such as the terrorism era, the internal armed conflict, the war of the Pacific, the corruption and abuse of power that shall never be forgotten, but remebered to achieve justice. Therefore, yuyachkani managed this by the use of the props, scenery, the facial and body expressions of the actors and the plot of the play.