The influence of Carnival, grotesco criollo and other forms of popular performance on Beckett´s theatre in Argentina

• Autores: Nudler, Alicia Clara
• Año de publicación: 2025
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: documento de conferencia
• Materia: Teatro y Dramaturgia; Beckett; Teatro; Grotesco criollo; Argentina; Carnaval; Teatro y Dramaturgia
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de Río Negro

Fil: Nudler, Alicia Clara. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Río Negro; Argentina.
In this paper I focus on the history of Beckett´s theatre in Argentina, tracing the influence of Carnival and other forms of popular festivities and performance in the local appropriation of his plays. During most of the 1800s and the early 1900s, the period of independence and construction of a national identity, Carnival was in the Rio de la Plata area a highly popular festivity where European immigrants and Afroporteños -Afro-Argentinians free from slavery since 1853- were key participants. As Bakhtin described, all kinds of transgressions and subversions happened, and boundaries between performance, spectacle and fiesta disappeared. Grotesco criollo, another popular form of spectacle in the early XXth century, linked to Carnival, showed the problems of European immigrant families and was characterized by the confusion between comedy and tragedy, and failures of identity and communication. I contend that these traditions have had and continue to have an impact on our local appropriation of Beckett. For instance, in the use of ad-hoc translation (sometimes including “lunfardo”, Buenos Aires slang) to create local feeling, or frequent gender subversion, right up until the last-minute withdrawal of rights for WFG with female Lucky and Boy in 2018 prior to being staged in an official theatre. When Beckett´s theatre arrived in Argentina in the 50s, it sparked disputes between opposing models of country, class, race and gender, similar to earlier ones around Carnival. Undoubtedly, his theatre continues to generate debate and challenge authority, in the context of complex relationships between tradition, innovation, identity and ideology.