Spanish – subtitled
Length 100 minutes
Creation of this project began during an artistic residency at CENTQUATRE in Paris. It was then selected by the Culture Ministry in Colombia for the “Estimulos 2014-2015” prize.
The second exploratory stage took place in Bogotá where the play was presented at the Theatre Julio Mario Santo Domingo – Estudio in March 2015.
The creation began with, and has been freely inspired by, accounts of those held hostage by the FARC. These include “Even Silence has an End” by Ingrid Betancourt and “7 Years Kidnapped by the FARC” by Luis Eladio Pérez, with extracts from both used in the play.
French journalist Roméo Langlois (Albert Londres Prize for his report “Colombia under Fire”) has contributed documentary images to the performance.
Performance
“In the Shadow of the Amazon” plunges the spectator into a unique artistic and sensorial experience. This is a multi-disciplinary creation built around documentary images, animations, video, sound, performance and the use of smell.
The play has a non-linear dramatic structure, conceived as a “documentary poem”, a living plastic work to stimulate all the spectator’s senses.
Rather than specific characters, the actors represent “universal” men and women. Beyond the socio-political conflict in Colombia, the play concerns the universal theme of the clash between war and the human condition, irrespective of race, nationality or religion.
Paradoxically, the universal dimension inherent in the performance becomes present and tangible for the audience through the specific nature of the Colombian conflict: a nomadic confinement within the jungle.
As in a “dark fairy-tale”, the contrast between beauty and violence within the hostage accounts is reflected in the choice of a melancholy and dreamlike aesthetic.
