Les veus de Iambu (1998)

Víctor and Berta, each travelling independently, meet in a distant country while climbing a mountain where “the fountains of youth” are located. On the way, they meet the young native Tarquei, also heading for the “fountains of Iambu”. For him, however, it is a religious duty, a kind of initiation. Tarquei offers to act as their guide. In the play we only see the last day of this excursion, physically and psychologically exhausting, the last day and the last night… The fact of feeling themselves “strangers” takes all three to mark out their territory, to argue in their own defence, to hurt…

Les veus de Iambu explores the clash between two cultures, but does not offer us a general thesis or quick solutions at a time when it is usual to explain cultural conflicts based merely on difference. The playwright shows us the agreements and disagreements between three people with their contradictions, their anxieties and fears, their aggressiveness and their inability to communicate. The conflicts that emerge do not only point to the difference between cultures but also to ourselves.