La Jornada: Cloud eyes, a defense of knowledge in the face of the ecological crisis and prejudices

cloud eyes, by the playwright Bertha Hiriart, is a defense of knowledge against discrimination, the environmental crisis and prejudices. The work confirms that science and books are a refuge for children.

The production, by the Los Cantores del Confin collective, began its second season yesterday at the El Galeón Abraham Oceransky theater, at the Centro Cultural del Bosque (CCB).

With a long career in children’s drama, Hiriart shows on stage that fear and ignorance damage the planet. The story addresses the love of nature and the consequences of its destruction, as well as the urgency of acting on climate change.

The teacher Bertha Hiriart, who directs the work, commented to The Day It is up to all of us to take care of the planet and not leave with false beliefs about global warming. “It is something that we could stop, if we make an effort to help the environment be cleaner, because we are already in a catastrophe, and that is very sad.”

With puppets, videos, original music and drawings about how trees became extinct in the world, the Los Cantores del Confin collective tells the life of Yari, a girl as white as a cloud, who lives with her rabbit on the outskirts of the city. The biologist Muma, dedicated to forestry, has become a friend of the girl, because her school classmates consider her strange for being albino and, due to superstitions, they even point out that she is the cause of environmental damage.

From the beginning of the montage, the audience remains attentive to a video that shows the configuration of the planet, full of trees, but then everything blurs. The scene is accompanied by a song where it is said that the children spent their time singing under the shade of a tree.

So that young viewers do not lose the thread of the story, the characters are presented in different settings: Yari’s house, the city with numerous buildings and the deforested mountain damaged by pollution.

The indifference to a climate that oscillates between drought and flooding worries Yari and Muma, who even organize the Plant One Plant campaign, and share it with those who are not aware of their actions that damage nature.

Girl and biologist commit to regenerating what others break.

Seeing the terrible flood, Yari’s companions steal her rabbit and then return it and thus have a reason to visit her and cut a lock of her hair in order to burn it, because they believe that she causes the change in the climate and they want to check if it is “normal.”

This scene has a visual force, because we see how the river flows thanks to the imagination and the use of plastic that waves as if it were a strong current, in which the little ones, with the help of a life preserver, travel to Yari’s house.

The interaction between actors, puppets and scenery streamlines the plot, where one of the children is encouraged by Yari to read a book that explains climate change and, convinced that there is still hope, he joins the campaign and together with other citizens plant trees in the mountains.

In cloud eyes, Hiriart brings to children a message against prejudice and the importance of taking care of nature, while reflecting the happiness of a girl who is surrounded by books and plants.

The playwright invites the audience to reflect on the actions necessary to take care of the planet, because the planet is already in the middle of a climate catastrophe.

Yari’s universe takes shape with the design and production of table and shadow puppets by Sofía Padilla, the musical composition is by Marco Loredo, the lighting and technical direction are by Roberto Paredes, the props are by Felipe Lara and the graphic design by Héctor Ortega.

The cast is made up of Juan Carlos Saavedra, Myrna Moguel, Alberto Cerz, Ximena Sotomayor, Diego Álvarez and Natalia Rojas.

cloud eyes It is presented on Saturdays and Sundays at 1 p.m. at the El Galeón Abraham Oceransky theater of the CCB (Paseo de la Reforma and Campo Marte). The season concludes on May 31.