+51 Aviación San Borja Theater Showcased Acculturation of Japanese and Latin America
Last week we had a chance to attend a play at Salihara called “+51 Aviación San Borja“. It is a meta-theater which was developed based on reality as well as fiction. The theater shows Japanese immigrants’ lives in Latin America which was inspired by the director’s own experience of visiting the Japanese diaspora in Lima, Peru. The director of the show, Yudai Kamisato was asked to visit his grandmother there and based on the experience he developed a narration with the addition of fiction and twists. There is a narration about Seki Sano, a dramaturgy who is known as “Father of Mexican Theater”. He then met with Ryoichi Jinnai, who is an entrepreneur who supports Japanese diaspora in Latin America. “+51 Aviación San Borja” describe about Japan in the view of Yudai Kamisato, Okazaki Art Theater and the immigrants who live in Peru.
Presented by N.P.O. DRIFTERS INTERNATIONAL and supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan (2017), the play dissected about how theater is viewed, and how social class was created. All of those were presented through the monologues that were shown throughout the theater. The monologue was rich with sub-context and albeit being shown in their native language, a screen with Indonesian and English subtitle helped the viewers to understand the concept of the play. The players utilized their facial gestures and intonation in making the narration alive. We were pampered with the vibrant colors they displayed through their wardrobe choices. It helped us to get through 2 hours of show which somehow lacked in music. With very minimum music background, we could see that some people in the audience fell asleep. Other than that, “+51 Aviación San Borja” showed how two cultures live side by side, contradict each other, and fused.
Reporter: Intan Maharani/Editor: Novita Widia
