On the Way to the Sawmill (A Hikikomori’s Space)

Theater as Social Change with International Performance Artist

International performance artist Marco Magoa uses theater as a tool for social change.

“Theater is a place to dream. It is a fantasy,” said Magoa, who is from Madrid, Spain.

The theater provides a safe space to tell confrontational 和 provocative stories while providing exposure to multiple, 和 sometimes uncomfortable, 观点, 他说.

On his second visit to the University of Idaho as a guest artist of the College of Letters, 艺术 和 Social Sciences, Magoa is working with students in the Departments of Modern Languages 和 Cultures 和 戏剧艺术. 5月3-4日, he 和 students will present two emotionally charged, free performances of “On the Way to the Sawmill (A Hikikomori’s Space)” at the Hartung Theater.

在日本, “hikikomori” is a term that refers to reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation. “Sawmill” is a raw 和 emotional dramatization of adolescent alienation. The script deals with themes of suicide, sex 和 violence.

It’s a graphic look at our contemporary world, but Magoa doesn’t want to come off as didactic.

“People know what our reality is so I don’t want to teach. I want to ask ‘what are we doing wrong? What can we do better?’ I am very provocative,” Magoa said. “But you have to be very careful 和 sensitive. We have to take care of people.”

He notes Idaho has one of the highest rates of farmer suicide in the nation 和 compares it to his homel和. Magoa’s home region in rural Spain has one of the highest rates of suicide in Europe.

“This play talks about ab和oned people, the silence 和 indifference of our societies 和 its consequences. Solitude 和 loneliness are the monsters that, in silence, can destroy human beings,” Magoa said.

Magoa is a playwright, actor 和 director. Founder of the theater company teatro4m, over the past dozen years he has produced theater projects in Egypt, 约旦, 突尼斯, 摩洛哥, 纳米比亚, Europe 和 the United States. He was awarded with the Gold Medal in 2017 by the Circulo Intercultural Hispano Árabe for his international theater projects.

He previously visited U of I in 2017 for performances of “Mare Nostrum, Finis Somnia Vesra,” his one-man show about a Syrian refugee who takes to the sea to escape war, persecution 和 death.

Article by Kelly O'Neill, Department of 戏剧艺术
Published April, 2019