There are few words in this startling hour-long production about a young protester in Latin America who disappeared at the age of 23 and whose remains were found in Calama, Chile. Sometimes those words emerge in flashbacks of Alicia’s life. At others, her exhumed bones utter testimony of state brutality and betrayal. More often, though, this scorching drama is delivered through music, puppetry and movement that immerses you emotionally.
Colombian-born performer Andres Valesquez initially stands at a microphone to speak of human rights violations committed by authoritarian regimes in the region. He mentions groups of mothers who have mobilised protests over their missing children and cites the work of a Nobel prize-nominated group, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), which identifies the victims involved in such cases and whose work is infused in this show.
Devised by Ephemeral Ensemble and directed by Ramon Ayres, Rewind plays out as a literal exhumation as the remains of Alicia are dug up by a forensic team, and as a metaphorical excavation of Alicia’s life. The lack of words and facts – names, dates etc – is unmooring at first but gradually the show’s sonic power takes hold, to staggering effect, as Alicia’s life is rewound in her mother’s mind.
Lighting designer Josephine Tremelling conjures remarkable visual effects using an overhead projector while Alex Paton, a fantastically fluid instrumentalist, plays the bouzouki, frame drum and caxixi (a type of shaker). There is also a variety of flutes and trumpets along with visceral vocals from the cast that sound like gulping intakes of breath and sobs.
The physicality brings its own power, from the graceful or frenetic movements of Alicia (Louise Wilcox) to the solemn march of her mother who is played by both Valesquez and, exuding profound sadness, Eyglo Belafonte.
In the movement you feel the exhilarations of protest – the chants, charge and exercising of a necessary freedom. It is combined with captivating puppetry: skeletons are manipulated by the company as they give their own testimonies. Sometimes, the dead continue to assert their rights. A shirt, hat and torch takes on defiant life through puppetry: “welcome to the protest,” he sings. Acts of violence are imaginatively choreographed and in one scene, a murder is enacted with an astonishing use of confetti. Everything coheres, no movement or sound is wasted.
Valesquez speaks of the UK government’s recent attempts to “suppress peaceful protests” and the show is a reminder not only of our right to gather but the countless deaths, such as Alicia’s, in the name of that right.
At New Diorama theatre, London, until 10 February
