En Un Sol Amarillo (Memorias de un Temblor)

The Shattering Force of Memories

[img]35|left|En Un Sol||no_popup[/img]Four actors from the Bolivian Teatro de Los Andes group embody composite characters based on real people. The stage is black. Hanging from ropes set to pulleys: table, chair, picture frame, window shutter. At times, the props are used with such force that, were it not for the actors’ precise choreography, one might worry about their getting beaned. But with nary a mishap, the set design’s clever minimalism yields powerfully dramatic moments. A memorable example among many memorable moments: The agonizing slice of time when a stick figure girl drawn in sand is slowly tipped off a table while a father recounts the loss of his daughter.

[img]36|left|En Un Sol||no_popup[/img] Yes, the fact that the play is in Spanish and requires supertitles results in divided attention for non-Spanish speakers. The repetitive use of the same, admittedly lovely, funeral tune also tends to take the focus away from the play. But such is the intensity of the cast that their performances overcome these distractions to a large part, just as they overcome their occasional forays into overdone avant-garde dance-like choreographies. (At one point, the actors march around the stage, rather ridiculously, like jello zombies.)

En Un Sol Amarillo (Memorias de un Temblor) – In a Yellow Sun (Memories of an Earthquake) is not so much a play, though it is theatrical, as a testimonial. It functions in both the specific and universal modes of storytelling. The specific is the1998 earthquake in Bolivia that, as playwright César Brie informs us in the program, left hundreds of people injured, dozens dead, and the structures of entire communities reduced to rubble. Through the personal tales of loss and survival, through the witnessing of greed and corruption’s toxic effects on reconstruction efforts, En Un Sol Amarillo is an evocative, eloquent document of memory.

The universal, of course, is the human response to tragedies often and disingenuously categorized as Acts of God in a desperate attempt to explain the unexplainable. Pain, sorrow, guilt, despair, the demand for explanations and, yes, the fragile seedlings of hope and the courage to face the uncertain future – all these and more are touched upon as the play’s particular testimonials call up obvious comparisons to California’s earthquake risk and on-going fires, Hurricane Katrina, India’s tsunami and countless other natural disasters. The lesson imparted is how human suffering transcends the artificial barriers – borders, cultures, languages, politics, religion – we set up between ourselves.

People Not Politics

One could very well ask what place we should assign to the partisan question as to government’s role in disaster relief. Should people discount government altogether and take on the obligation to help themselves? Is government responsible for the welfare of the people? Perhaps it is that people, as the foundation upon which all governments stand, have an expectation that the government does what they want it to do. There is a social contract between communities and community leaders. In the wake of California’s fires, ill-advised comparisons to Hurricane Katrina have crept up, neglecting the mutual reciprocity of government and the people.

As it does not delve into these kinds of political analogies per se, En Un Sol Amarillo stays away from the manifesto, however much it counts as a diatribe against corrupt politicians and military personnel who exploit and steal from their constituents while proclaiming themselves the people’s saviours. It makes a point often lost in the punditry’s tit-for-tat clash of ideologies, namely, that the issue at hand is the real suffering, the real hardship, of real people.

As the Center Theatre Group’s first Spanish-language play, presented in partnership with the Teatro de Los Andes and the International Latino Theatre Festival of Los Angeles (FITLA), En Un Sol Amarillo is a strong example of the benefits of cross-cultural communication. We will hopefully see more quality productions – socially conscious, well-produced – in this vein.

En Un Sol Amarillo (Memorias de un Temblor) – In a Yellow Sun (Memories of an Earthquake). Written and directed by César Brie. Starring Lucas Achirico, Daniel Aguirre, Gonzalo Callejas and Alice Guimaraes. On stage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre until Nov. 25. Visit www.kirkdouglastheatre.com for tickets and information.