Writer: Gabriela Yepes
Translator: Gigi Guizado
Director: Sarah O’Connell
Gabriela Yepes’ brilliant play, The Therapist, is presented in a riveting production at Barons Court Theatre. Gigi Guizado, who is also the play’s English translator, gives a spell-bind performance as the play’s central character, the Therapist. In her professional life, she is a human rights lawyer. But when she is approached to run some sort of wellness therapy for the long-term inmates of a bleak naval-base prison, she finds herself agreeing against her better judgment. She writes a programme for a 12-week yoga course, knowing in advance that she will be face-to-face with some of Peru’s most notorious terrorists. She is far from naïve. She has grown up with direct knowledge of terrorism – her grandfather was abducted, only released when her father put together sufficient ransom money.
But here’s the rub – the real enemy with whom she constantly engages is in fact her own father, the man who bullied her relentlessly as a child and whom in her mind, she still fails to please.
One might imagine a sentimental telling of this story, in which one inspirational teacher turns around other people’s lives. But this is no Dead Poet’s Society. Yepes’ taut writing confronts our desire for an easy solution. The five prisoners, who week by week show up for the classes, may at first report overwhelming positivity. But soon they are rebelling. Guizado is brilliant voicing the angry cynicism of these brutalised men. Why should they follow her instructions? Why, indeed, are they being indoctrinated with a tradition that comes from India? Their fierce criticism feeds into her traumatic experiences of her father’s relentless verbal attacks.
She has to draw deeply on her experience of finding strength in despair. As a cowed daughter, she learnt capoeira, and much of her inner power comes from her experience of this martial art, just as much as from yoga. In fact, the latter is new to her. In a comic scene, we see her mugging up on yoga before her first session with the prisoners. And despite the seriousness of the subject, The Therapist is often a funny play. Guizado, who expertly demonstrates various poses on stage, happily embodies the various awkward beginners she has to teach, wobbling their way through downward dogs and dancer poses.
Tightly directed by Sarah O’Connell, the repeated routines of the play – the Therapist’s regular trek through the prison’s locked doors – mirror the claustrophobic four walls experienced by the inmates. The Therapist is a really stunning play that deserves a wider audience. And for once, the somewhat dark Barons Court Theatre comes into its own.
Runs until 8 July 2023
