Living European writers are so rarely seen on the insular British stage that it is refreshing to encounter this work by the young Valencian playwright, Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez. I suspect, for all the fluency of William Gregory’s translation, we miss some of the specific resonances, but the play offers a vivid picture of a Spanish couple’s disintegrating relationship as they traipse round Peru’s Inca trail.
The sole characters are simply identified – why can’t they have names? – as She and He. The woman shies away from the tourist sites and engages with local people, finally introducing an impoverished Andean boy to the alien luxury of a hotel bathroom. The man, meanwhile, is drawn to a North American-based Spanish tourist couple who are both physically attracted to him. It is clear that the woman, who claims “there’s a ruined city inside me”, is stricken with post-colonial guilt and that the man, in a way that reminds one of Ian McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers, discovers his sexual identity in an exotic location.
Heavy use is made of the symbolism of the puma, condor and eagle in Peruvian culture but, often taking the form of confessional monologues, the play stylishly shows how confrontation with the colonial past can lead to self-discovery.
Dilek Rose as the woman has the more prominent role and expressively shows how the character’s rejection of global tourism induces a sense of homecoming, while Gareth Jones sharply embodies her partner’s angry estrangement. Kate O’Connor’s production is, at 70 minutes, swift and elegant.
It’s an odd, intriguing play that, while being distinctly Spanish, shows Rodríguez understands the crisis that commonly hits couples when uprooted from their natural habitat.
• At Theatre 503, London, until 16 February.
