AMARILLO
At the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, SFU Woodward's No more shows
Apart from the high quality and tremendous variety the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival brings to Vancouver (music, dance, theatre, multimedia), it's the festival's "internationality" that's so exciting.
The 2012 edition of the 18-day extravaganza kicked off at SFU Woodward's with a Teatro Linea de Sombra multimedia piece from Mexico City. What this internationally acclaimed company knows to be an urgent concern for thousands of Mexicans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans and other disadvantaged or persecuted Latinos is rarely an issue for those of living here in Lotusland. How many of us risk our lives to cross the U.S. border illegally in hopes of grabbing a little of the American dream?
In this multi-layered piece that combines movement, projections from at least three videocams, layered sound score and dance, a man (whose name, he says, could be Juan or Pedro or Jorge or any number of names) leaves his home in Mexico (or Guatemala or El Salvador or somewhere else) bound for Amarillo, Texas. He leaves behind a woman and he promises to return; he doesn't.
Maybe he has paid a "coyote" thousands of American dollars for help to go north. Perhaps he has swum rivers, hopped trains, dragged his dehydrated body across deserts ("no tears when you cry, no urine but you want to take a piss"). Does the coyote rob him and put a bullet in his brain? Or, if he arrives in Amarillo, does he find work? The City of Amarillo's website claims it is home to 190,695 people "and always welcomes newcomers." But not so-called "wetbacks."
And what of the women left behind? Those who wait and wait, rearing children who will never see their father? One of those abandoned women writes to an American politician begging him to "close the border and send our men home."
Amarillo is about as layered as it gets: the empty stage is soon filled with dozens of onegallon plastic jugs of water, a steaming or smoking suitcase, bits of paraphernalia. Later, dozens of clear plastic bags full of white sand are lowered from above; four brightly dressed women move amongst them gradually piercing each one; the stage slowly fills with sand. The backdrop is a huge wall onto which images are projected: sometimes videos of trains travelling through various landscapes, sometimes the central character on his journey north, always north. Text is mostly in Spanish with English surtitles; on opening night there was a technical glitch that left fairly lengthy bits of dialogue untranslated.
It's visually exciting, but it's also often difficult to know where to look-so much is going on simultaneously. With an overhead videocam as well as the two onstage, the action happens on several planes. All six performers may be in motion with projections running behind them.
Sound, light, images, movement and the growly intoning (reminiscent of Tibetan Buddhist monks) of an older, Stetson-hatted, pony-tailed character in sunglasses all begin to build. But, ironically, Amarillo engaged me most when, during what was a sort of hiatus in the action, the central performer addressed the packed theatre with a passionate plea. Apparently a Vancouver-based Canadian company is ripping up a "sacred mountain" in Mexico's Wirikuta Desert in search of gold and silver. While I'm not looking to share in the American dream and I don't live in a country where "You can't trust nobody. Not the Virgin Mother, not the President," I can certainly react shamefacedly to exploitation of Mexico's pristine deserts by Canadians.
They do theatre differently elsewhere. Their subjects are different; their presentation is different. I say, "Viva la diferencia!" That's the PuSh Festival and there's a lot more to come.
