Feroz

I wish I hadn’t been born.

Surrounded by other children deprived, like themselves, of voice, identity and rights, four children uncompromisingly evoke horror. They tell about their daily lives, what they see, live – endure – in a juvenile detention centre. 

Danilo Llanos Quezada based his work on Edison Llanos’ book Mi Infierno en el Sename a testimony of his shattered childhood within the Servicio Nacional de Menores in Chile. This national service for minors is an institution responsible for the protection of vulnerable children or those subjected to a judicial sentence, and for overseeing the adoption process. An investigation initiated by UNICEF has finally revealed the sexual abuse, violence and mistreatment that plague these services. Attempts by the Chilean judiciary to shrug off the reports have inflamed public opinion. Building on these trajectories, the Teatro La Peste has chosen to work with a cast made up mostly of pre-teen boys and girls to embody the characters in these poignant tales. Crying out in pain as much as in tears, Feroz portrays the forgotten, the missing, the hungry, and the efforts of these children to be among those who get out via adoption.