Camasca

Atahualpa, having won a civil war against his brother Huascar, visits the oracle of Catequil with his leading generals in order to confirm his glorious victory and become Inca. The oracle’s priest, Icchal, performs the sacred rites and all are surprised, Icchal included, when the oracle denies Atahualpa his victory. Three times Atahualpa returns, and three times he is denied. With every visit, Atahualpa grows angrier and angrier, and after his third visit, he lashes out at Icchal with terrifying consequences.

Cast

Verony Centeno, Iván Chávez, Irene Eyzaguirre, Juan Carlos Morón, Anaí Padilla, Marcello Rivera

Creative Team

Rafael Dumett (Playwright), Daniel Goldman (Director), Jorge Robinet (Assistant Director), Gabriela Yepes (Research Assistant), Eduardo Camino (Set Designer), Roger Loayza (Costume Designer), Lucho Tuesta (Lighting Designer), Rosa María Oliart (Sound Designer)

This was a really interesting gig. I basically got a call out of nowhere, asking if I’d like to go to Lima for three months to direct an award-winning new play about the end of the Incas, and more specifically a reimagining of Atahualpa’s visit to the Oracle of Catequil. My first thought when I read the play was: how the hell do I direct this play? And should I even try to direct it, given that I’m a British-European artist with no direct links to Inca heritage and history? After long conversations with the theatre and with Rafael, the writer, I agreed to do it, but it was incredibly important for me to create a process that grounded the show in indigenous experience.

We cast diversely, we brought a researcher on board, we went out to historical sites and we tried to learn as much as we could. And by doing so, so much of the play became stageable. By learning about the rituals, we realised we had to create a space and a feeling for the audience that offered the opposite of our hectic fast paced modern lives. In other words, we had to slow things down and take time to embrace the ritualistic elements and the circularity of the play. We realised we had to bring earth and water on stage and that water had to be ever present, the voice of the gods. We realised we had to immerse the audience into the world of the play and that meant building a ramp out into the audience. All decisions that helped ground the play and let it fly.

Talking of flying, at one point, we contemplated taking ayahuasca as a cast, given that we were dealing with a story of high priests and plant-induced visions… in the end, we didn’t, for very practical, professional reasons, but maybe it would have changed everything again.