Review: ENTRAÑAS, The Barbican Centre

Performed for the first time outside Spain, El Patio Teatro’s Entrañas asks two simple questions: what does it mean to be a human, and what does it mean to be human? The deceptively simple title roughly translates as “Insides” and obfuscates the intellectual and emotional breadth and depth of this stunningly innovative work. 

The company was founded by Izaskun Fernandez and Julian Sáenz-Lopez in 2010 in Logroño, the capital city of La Rioja province in northern Spain. They come from different backgrounds: Fernandez has a degree in Artistic Pottery and has won two acting awards at the La Rioja’s Young Theatre Festival while Sáenz-Lopez studied technical set up, lighting, audio and theatre direction. Their first show A Mano (By Hand) brought together theatre, puppetry and modelling and is still being toured around their native country. Appearing as part of this year's MimeLondon festival, Entrañas is El Patio Teatro’s fourth show.

Within a deceptively simple wooden frame, the pair take us on a tour through the different parts of our bodies, throwing in a raft of fascinating facts about the brain, cells, intestines and pretty much everything else. Did you know we are born with 300 bones but end up with 206 by the time we are adults? That there are only 11 elements in our body? That your left lung is smaller than your right to accommodate your heart? Or that our noses and ears continue to grow while our eyes and bodies shrink?

Biology is blended here with biography. What could just be a fun science lesson is brought to earth by relating stories of the actors’ past and their family. In their eyes, scars are the happy memories of childhood adventures, the sorry reminders of bad luck and ill health or, in the case of belly buttons, a direct connection to our mothers. A lost limb can be like a missing parent in the way it still holds space in our minds if not in the physical world we can see and touch. 

The theatrical elements take Entrañas beyond what could be a whimsical lecture. The precise motions as the pair move around the small set are a joy to watch and are matched by the seductive Spanish storytelling. Parlour tricks using bedsheets and magnets enliven the narrative while the detailed otional ties between what is said and what we feel. This is the first time the show has used surtitles but there is no noticeable disconnect between what the actors are saying and what is shown above in English.

MimeLondon’s high-quality curation has once again delivered a clever, memorable and engaging show about the human condition and, based on what I saw in Entrañas, I look forward to seeing what they bring to the UK next.

Entrañas is at The Barbican Centre until 10 February. More information on the MimeLondon festival can be found here.

Photo credit: Clara Larrea

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