A Journey through Parallel Worlds" and takes the audience tonight to the Amazon jungle of eastern Peru. In the footsteps of William Burroughs, a journey begins in which the yage plant plays an influential role.
In January 1953, William Burroughs embarked on a seven-month expedition to the Amazon jungle to find the legendary yage plant, also known as ayahuasca. The document of this journey is his famous Yage Letters, which was also co-written by Allen Ginsberg. Sixty years later, Getrud, the protagonist of the work, follows in Burroughs' footsteps to the Shibispo Indians in eastern Peru. There, in the Amazon jungle, the hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca has been used as medicine since time immemorial. It is taken as part of a ritual ceremony led by a shaman.
In a small village far from civilization, Gertrud meets a shaman with whom she embarks on an initiatory journey under the effects of ayahuasca. A journey that will change her life. The ritual in its sonorous reality (original sound recordings) and its visionary essence (processed musically and acoustically) constitute the core of the piece.Burroughs' texts will be heard on other levels, as well as the shaman, the traveler and other protagonists.