Adiós Ayacucho

The internationally acclaimed theater collective known as Yuyachkani first staged this piece at the height of Peru’s guerra interna, a Dirty War that left over 75,000 people dead. Adiós Ayacuchotells the story of a peasant—a suspected ‘terrorist’—who has been tortured, murdered, and dismembered by the military. By speaking through the body of the Q’olla, a masked dancer from Andean festivals, the disappeared peasant presents his demand for a decent burial and turns the audience into a community of witnesses. Yuyachkani deftly blends ritual, theater, and performance to make visible a history of cumulative trauma.