The Dance Center and Physical Theater Festival Chicago present
Los Regalos/The Gifts
by Compañia de Teatro Físico (Peru)
Thursday and Friday, June 4 and 5 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, June 6 at 2:00 and 6:00 p.m.
60min / Ages 10 +
A father and his two sons live alone in a house without women. The most routine of tasks such as preparing breakfast, bathing, or housework turn into real adventures when tackled by three inexperienced men and their fear of not knowing what are they doing. The journey that the elder brother needs to make in order to leave home, and the fear of saying goodbye to the ones we love, will be the starting point of our story.
The acrobatics becomes a metaphor for exploring male behavior, while the universal language of clowning allows the cast to heighten the humor and tenderness of the scene.
- Escape Section, Comercio Daily
With their precise way of acting, their minimalist gestures they recorded with a few distinct strokes the portrait of a family without women, where, in any inability to express one's feelings, in each punch to son and brother lies the intensity of their interpersonal relationships. The Compañía de Teatro Físico perform universal, speechless, physical theatre independent from time and space to rock the viewers gently with their fears.
- Festival ARENA of the young arts. Festival Jury
In The Gifts, the theater frees itself from voice so the body becomes the great protagonist. Not a single word; lots of movement.
- Punto Seguido Magazine
They push themselves to communicate events and emotions by relying on a score made up solely of bodily gestures, movements, proxemics, rhythms, pauses, and tensions. A fascinating lesson in life and theater not to be missed.
- Percy Encinas, Comercio Daily
About
Compañia de Teatro Físico
The Physical Theatre Company (CTF) was founded in 2014 by Eduardo Cardozo, Fernando Castro, and Diego Sakuray, following a line of research that merges theatre, dance, and contemporary circus. Its goal is to create stage works using languages that speak from the body and for the body. To date, it has premiered 15 productions: Copacabana (2014), Prehistoria de la Felicidad (2015), Tu voz Persiste (2015), Los Regalos (2015), +Deshuesadero+ (2016), Gnossienne (2017), Perra (2018), El baile de los muertos (2021), Assamblage (2022), El Enemigo (2022), Quilla la ardilla en la peña Pimpilla (2023), Solo (2024), Crónica de amor (2025), and Como te gusta (2025).
Our stage proposal approaches ideas through action and movement to create a complex language that can be enjoyed by diverse audiences, since the body and its expression transcend social and cultural barriers. We create contemporary languages to continue questioning and answering ourselves about our identity as human beings, as artists, and as citizens of Peru and the world. In over 11 years of artistic life, CTF has received various national and international awards. With the production Los Regalos, it won the Audience Award at the Arena Festival in Erlangen, Germany (2016), and the Award for Best Foreign Work from the Society of Critics of Montevideo, Uruguay (2018). It was part of the Peruvian delegation selected by the Ministry of Culture to participate in MICSUR 2016 in Colombia and MICSUR 2024 in Chile. It has also been nominated on several occasions for the AIBAL Awards, Oficio Crítico Awards, and El Comercio’s Luces Awards.
