From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Costa Rica
This article surveys Beach Surgery adaptation in Costa Rica. For the primary adaptation work, see Vuelta al Ciclo—A San José Participatory Theatre Cycle.
Costa Rica's engagement with Beach Surgery emerged late (post-2022) but with distinctive emphasis on ecological futures and participatory refusal. The country's renewable-energy culture (80%+ electricity from hydroelectric, wind, solar) attracted adaptors seeking to reframe Leif and Katita as environmental engineers navigating impossible sustainability—closer to Smith's solar-punk vision than the original's martial metaphors.
The primary adaptation, **Vuelta al Ciclo** (2022–ongoing), is a durational performance-installation in downtown San José inviting audiences to walk a circular route encountering performers at seven stations. Each stages one phase of the three temptations. The project uses recycled materials (corrugated metal, salvaged wood, plastic ocean-waste) to build temporary shrines—echoing C. W. Smith's own material poetics. Performances occur at dawn and dusk, mirroring the first half's temporal span.
Costa Rican radio collectives have also produced serialised audio dramas in Spanish, centering Katita's voice as a refusal protagonist: she breaks the cycle not through violence but through consent withheld, labour refused. This theological reframing—The Doctrine of Refusal as decolonial praxis—remains distinctive to the region, transforming the pacemaker's external rhythm into a symbol of ecological and political sovereignty surrendered.