Members of the theater group SinVergüenza, made up of people with visual impairments, during a rehearsal in Lima (Peru), March 23, 2023. Angela Ponce
The 13 people who took to the roof of a building in Miraflores, Lima this afternoon to speak out about their partial or total blindness are happy to say they have a point of view. You have to see them wallow, gossip or tap their sticks. It’s a joke they know by heart, but it still has the same effect on them. Humor saved them from themselves and theater offered them a new way to travel the world with less anger and regret.
There are only a few hours left until the Teatro sinVergüenza will perform for the first time on the most coveted stage in Peru: the Gran Teatro Nacional, a colossus of 1,500 seats that has been stunned by the voices of Plácido Domingo and Juan Diego Flórez St Petersburg Ballet and got his heart pierced with dramatic comedies like Escenas de la vida conjugal by Argentinian Ricardo Darín.
“We will lose. We’ve never played in a real theater before. Are we ready for that?” Richard Picón, one of the actors, asks during rehearsals. What he says is part of the script. Así nos vemos is a testimony in which each of them is constantly questioned and the aim is for the audience to vacillate between reflection and laughter. An audience that mostly doesn’t know the everyday life of blind people, but above all what they can do. The stereotype classifies them as beggars, massage therapists, and call center operators, but it’s difficult to picture them on stage as artists.
It all started with a workshop in December 2010 at the Lima Rehabilitation Center for the Blind (CERCIL) given by Lucho Cáceres, a lawyer who was also guided by the brilliance of acting. A face known for his numerous roles in theatre, film and television. The learning was mutual: they debuted as actors and he as a teacher and director. Since then, the collective creations have given rise to productions baptized with a large dose of black humor: Blind Dates, Isla Buenavista, The sky does not remove the blind, The blind man’s trial, Blind case, among others.
Lucho Caceres, director of the SinVergüenza theater group. Angela Ponce
The first target group they confronted with their fears was their family. Then he was joined by his friends and friends of his friends. Until word of mouth paid off. Always at CERCIL, in an adapted room with a minimum capacity. This was so for a decade until they reappeared in 2022 after the pandemic at Juliet, a 260-seat commercial theater. As therapists say, they have stepped out of their comfort zone. “It wasn’t easy at all,” they repeat in unison. The almost full capacity of the performances was the springboard for what you will experience this Wednesday in the spotlight of the Gran Teatro Nacional.
“The only thing that a blind or visually impaired person needs to behave like a sighted person is to know the space,” says director Lucho Cáceres. His confidence in the company, which he founded at the invitation of a friend from college – Ximena Ramírez, director of CERCIL – is complete: they will only have three rehearsals on stage. As footballers would say, field recognition. Nevertheless, the mood is high. You know the theater script inside and out. You’ll get through two hours without a fright.
“If you’re on the bus and you see a blind man getting on, don’t interrupt his attention. Don’t stay in your cloud. Porters are all over Peru. They don’t leave you where you want, but in a different place. A thousand pitfalls on the road, our reality is harsh. If you don’t know, I’ll trip over your garbage bags,” raps César Quiñones Falcón, the group’s Rastafarian, waving his long dreads. If transportation in Lima is usually an extreme sport for everyone, how will it be for them? On the circuit, where most drivers charge instead of dodging, and on the sidewalk, where a passerby can be surprised by a bicycle, a scooter, and even a motorcycle.
“The capital is not a handicap-friendly city, it’s rather hostile,” says Lourdes Aquije, an ode to self-improvement, she is social communicator for the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and national runner-up in the 100m and 200m. As a teenager, he was left in the shadows due to medical negligence.
Detail of the cane and shoes of two members of the sinVergüenza company.Angela Ponce
In the middle of the rehearsal, the actors—mostly preferring to say they’re just acting—discuss how they describe themselves, categorizing themselves as those who were born blind, have remained blind, or have a visual impairment. The truth is that Ángela Pié is the only one in the clan whose blindness is congenital. “While you dream of pictures, I dream of voices,” he says. Diversity exists: Not everyone sees completely in the dark. Some say they see lead, others see flashes of light, and others only shadows. What irritates her most are the extremes: underestimation or overestimation. May they magnify everything they do or treat them as incompetent.
Mental health is a fundamental axis in Así nos vemos. The work is enriched by monologues. They tell the story of their most vulnerable episodes up until the moment they accepted their condition and began to struggle with their destiny. Just like María Inés Aspilcueta, who lost his sight in the last years of school due to a brilliant juvenile glaucoma. And a few years later, after learning to live again – mobilizing with his cane and reading his first texts in Braille – he founded his own therapy and reflexology company eight years ago.
Or as Junior Gálvez, a promising footballer who was about to make his first-league debut due to a brain tumor and who, alongside his degree as a physiotherapist, is now one of the dominating actors in the ensemble. Some spent up to three years locked in their rooms before taking to the streets again.
SinVergüenza members hug during a rehearsal. Angela Ponce
“I have fulfilled what I wanted so badly. I feel fulfilled,” says María Consuelo Guembes, better known as Maricucha, the eldest of the group. This 76-year-old woman was born with the theater bug. She was one of those people who never missed a performance at school. But when he grew up and wanted to study acting, his parents resisted. He studied education, but then degenerative retinitis pigmentosa changed his plans. “It seems incredible to me that when I could see I couldn’t be an actress and now that I’m blind and at my age I’m going to set foot in the Grand National Theater,” she says excitedly after smoking a cigarette. She is accompanied by the only sighted actor of the Teatro sin Vargüenza: her husband Julio Márquez, a thin man with a smile who joined this adventure a few years ago.
“They have filled my life,” says director Lucho Cáceres at the end of the rehearsal. As a visionary, he believed they were capable of acting before themselves. The milestones will continue in 2023. In May they will have some performances in Iquitos in the Peruvian jungle. You are going on tour for the first time. You will continue to conquer new scenarios. Bold and shameless.
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