“Jíjop”, Original idea and creation: E. Larea, G. Páez. With Emiliano Larrea. Direction: Gabriel Paez. Guevara shed, Guevara 326.
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges in theater is to build a story that will entertain, without words, for almost an hour of performance. This means that there is a text but that it lacks dialogues, monologues or any off-screen narrator. Needless to say, a proposal with these characteristics necessarily requires a performer with the ability to attract the public’s attention.
This is the case of “Jíjop”, an intensely creative option in which the young and talented Emiliano Larrea carries out a show that works like a kaleidoscope of multiple images. With resources from different stage languages such as physical theater or mysterious black theater, where boundaries are blurred and objects seem to float in the air. It also adds the use of a neutral mask or expressive tools of mime and gesture emanating from the teachings of the French artist Jacques Lecoq, and even urban dances such as popping in which the performer, through the use of muscular and joint techniques, contracts different parts of the body, to combine postures and movements that make it look like a kind of robot.
The story is that of a carpenter who makes Jíjop, who, like Pinocchio in Carlo Collodi’s traditional tale, comes to life and escapes into adventure. Intrigued to get to know the city, he enters the urban maelstrom, where noise and visual pollution transform him into one more piece of gear.
Larrea, recognized for his great career as an actor and host on the Pakapaka channel, is a worthy heir to the legendary Buster Keaton. What he does on stage amazes and captures the imagination of adults and children, by transforming his body and face as if they were made of plasticine and embodying both the doll and its creator. His work is a revelation of the Buenos Aires billboard.
The direction of Gabriel Páez, provides sustained rhythm to the development of the plot, and has three notable creative items; the set design by Martín Diez that seems to recreate the imagery of Tim Burton, the costumes by Azul Borestein and the music by Raphaël Beau and Hugues Le Bars, regular film composers.
Ideal for a family outing.
