El rincón de los muertos

The Peruvian actor and director Sebastián Rubio develops documentary and testimonial theatre projects, drawing on interviews, archive material and real-life experiences linked to memory and the contemporary political situation. His works, such as Proyecto 1980/2000: El tiempo que heredé, Desde Afuera or Tregua all revolve around national and international armed conflicts, but always from the inner perspective of their protagonists or direct witnesses.

During the pandemic, he met Yanira Dávila, a theatre director and journalist, and together they directed the short documentary Tierra sin aire. Two years later, they were selected by the Lima Performing Arts Festival Development Programme to stage El rincón de los muertos, which was performed at the prestigious Mirada – Ibero-American Festival of Performing Arts in São Paulo two years ago.

The term ‘Ayacucho’ is derived from the Quechua words ‘Aya’, meaning ‘death’, and ‘Kuchu’, meaning ‘corner’. “The Corner of the Dead” or “El rincón de los muertos”. And the area seems to bear his name.

A single performer on stage, Ricardo Bromley, acts, sings, plays instruments and performs the daring scissors dance: an Andean ritual involving complex acrobatic manoeuvres, carried out whilst holding two metal blades. The aim is to highlight the divide between the Peru described in official records and the real-life Peru, through its own history. Events such as the founding myth, the battle for independence, the internal armed conflict, and the December 2022 massacre converge on stage and in his body.

There is a lamp on stage that belonged to the actor’s grandfather, Professor Juan Alberto López Mayorga, who was forced to flee his village after clashing with the military during the 1969 protests against the abolition of free state education. A simple object that symbolises remembrance and resilience.

From time to time, the directors point out, it seems as though a certain quota of deaths is being met, which gives meaning to the name ‘Ayacucho’. Is it possible to break these cycles of violence that seem to condemn an entire population? What does an actor have to say when his family history includes both victims and perpetrators?