Spring Break
In 'Adios Ayacucho,' dead men do tell tales
by Dan Forman
Arts | 10/9/07
Posted online at 9:33 PM EST on 10/8/07
"Trauma becomes transmittable, understandable through performance," said founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Diana Taylor before the Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani's production of Adios Ayacucho last Sunday. The play is a commentary on the mass bloodshed of Peruvian citizens by their own government during the 1980s and 1990s. The message is wittily yet darkly conveyed through the tale of a decapitated man's journey to recover his lost bones that were torn apart by the grenades of Peruvian armed forces in the highly persecuted town of Ayacucho. The ghost of this man, Alfonso Cánepa, recounts his story through the body of a wandering peasant who stumbles upon Cánepa's burial site, which contains only the clothes of the decapitated Peruvian. Upon trying on Cánepa's shoes, the peasant becomes possessed by his spirit and must listen to Cánepa's sorrowful tale of his expedition to Lima from Ayacucho to recover his lost body parts.
The foolish Cánepa first gets himself into trouble by going to the local police station and inquiring as to why he is being persecuted. The police deal with him viciously, torture him and cut off his fingertips. Then they throw him into a ditch with two grenades. Cánepa is foolish only because he still believes that he can trust his government. He, like most people subjected to persecution, entreats his government's protection. However, the terrible truth is that it's his government that is responsible for the bloodshed. Adios Ayacucho's ultimate message is that a man's worst fear is realized when he is forced to live in fear of his government.
This simple plot is used to represent the more profound struggles of lower class Peruvian citizens who were being falsely characterized as terrorists in areas assumed to harbor terrorist activity. The Peruvian government launched a ruthless campaign beginning in the early '80s to exterminate the serendistas, communists who wished to overthrow the regime. Adios Ayacucho illustrates the disproportionate amount of authority the Peruvian armed forces held during this time. They were given free reign to destroy whatever and whomever they deemed "dangerous."
The foolish Cánepa first gets himself into trouble by going to the local police station and inquiring as to why he is being persecuted. The police deal with him viciously, torture him and cut off his fingertips. Then they throw him into a ditch with two grenades. Cánepa is foolish only because he still believes that he can trust his government. He, like most people subjected to persecution, entreats his government's protection. However, the terrible truth is that it's his government that is responsible for the bloodshed. Adios Ayacucho's ultimate message is that a man's worst fear is realized when he is forced to live in fear of his government.
This simple plot is used to represent the more profound struggles of lower class Peruvian citizens who were being falsely characterized as terrorists in areas assumed to harbor terrorist activity. The Peruvian government launched a ruthless campaign beginning in the early '80s to exterminate the serendistas, communists who wished to overthrow the regime. Adios Ayacucho illustrates the disproportionate amount of authority the Peruvian armed forces held during this time. They were given free reign to destroy whatever and whomever they deemed "dangerous."
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