Human Stampede

How to live together when everyone has a completely different idea of the world?

Chile, the near future. Residents of one of the neighborhoods have to decide what to do with a group of people in a homelessness crisis who have occupied a residential square. The home furnishing store is on the verge of bankruptcy and is desperately looking for a way to survive. And somewhere inside the Chilean police there is a secret leftist faction that is preparing its first attack.

Sounds absurd? It should. The Bonobo collective takes very specific social conflicts and turns them up to the limit of probability. He collides everyday life with the grotesque, politics with farce, and the clash of completely different visions of the world turns into fuel for a speeding theatrical machine.

The human stampede arises from the question of the loss of the sense of community, the sources of which creators seek even in times of dictatorship. But instead of dwelling on the diagnosis, he asks something more: can we still think of a way to be together, despite all the differences, conflicts and mutual distrust?

Andreína Olivarí and Pablo Manzi respond with a theater sharp and lined with black humor. Instead of adding another grim diagnosis of modernity, they arrange a grotesque short-circuit of it. In a world that increasingly seems absurd on its own, Bonobo reclaims the absurdity for theatre — and makes it a space for shared laughter.

Pablo Manzi and Andreína Olivarí are the creators of the Bonobo collective, with whom they created the productions Donde Viven los Bárbaros, Tú Amarás and Temis. Bonobo productions have been presented in Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, Peru, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Belgium, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Chile. The artists also carried out creative residencies and workshops at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York (USA), Triennale Milano (Italy), as part of the MitSP — International Theater Festival in São Paulo (Brazil), the Checoeslovaquia program (Chile) and In Teatro Villa Nappi (Italy).

Fig. Noli Provoste