“The days where children grow up are the same days where old people get older”. So says an African proverb that has a lot to do with this show, where a single performer tells us the story of a grandfather and his grandson. The old man uses music to transmit the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of his people to the boy, but the years lie heavy on him and he is going blind. In the hope of finding a way to care for him, the boy sets off on a long journey that will take him to Europe, a continent he reaches with only the knowledge of ancestral Africa, expressed through music, as his belongings.
The show, which won the Equatorial Guinea Press Association Award for best theatre show, draws on performance techniques and dynamics from the Fang culture, which is native to Equatorial Guinea, among other countries. The production has been seen in ten countries in Africa, Europe and America. It is the creation of a dramatist who was born in Ebebiyin (Equatorial Guinea) but has lived in Spain since 1996, when he received a grant to continue his artistic training. A member of the L’Om Imprebís theatre company from Valencia, he is also the coordinator of the Orígenes project, which aims to found the Equatorial Guinea National Theatre Company. He has starred in musicals, performed in the films Querida Bamako (2007) and La causa de Kripan (2009) and he has written El percusionista and Re-CICLO. Based on El percusionista, he has created the cultural dissemination and exchange project Eduk’Art, with workshops on African dancing, percussion and oral tradition, amongst other activities.
The show is part of a series of productions from Sala Periferia, a theatre venue dedicated to the creations of Afro-descendants, which will be opening in the city in the coming year. It will make its debut in society by recovering pioneering shows by African and Afro-descendant artists.
A Gorsy Edú production.
Author and performer: Gorsy Edú Music composition and performance: Gorsy Edú General production: Gorsy Edú Assistant producer: FamYaMina Lighting and sound: Félix Garma Costume and props: Matilde Gerona Trillo Graphic design: FamYaMina Distribution: FamYaMina
