Beckett´s theatre and the intermittencies of democracy in Argentina

• Autores: Nudler, Alicia Clara
• Año de publicación: 2024
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: documento de conferencia
• Materia: Teatro y Dramaturgia; Beckett; Teatro; Argentina; Teatro y Dramaturgia
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de Río Negro

Fil: Nudler, Alicia Clara. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Río Negro; Argentina.
This paper relates Beckett´s theatre in Argentina to the country´s troubled politics. Beckett´s texts first reached Argentina during one of several dictatorships. But the potential of his plays to comment on politics was not initially realised. When Waiting for Godot was staged in 1956, some said it was “too European”, the political left criticising its lack of a “positive character”. However, influenced by Beckett, a non-realistic form of “situated absurd” theatre emerged, examples of which, like Gambaro’s El Campo, 1967, and Pavlovsky’s El Señor Galindez, 1973, anticipated the horrors of torture and illegal imprisonment that were about to happen in reality on a massive scale. During the 1976-1983 civic-military dictatorship, theatre continued under censorship. While Beckett’s work avoided prohibition, possibly for its lack of overt political content, the return of democracy encouraged a proliferation of Beckett productions, some staged with clear political allusions. These included Waiting for Godot in 1997, reflecting the chaos of the Menem era, What Where staged by Leandra Rodríguez in Buenos Aires’ primary site for political demonstrations, the Plaza de Mayo, in 1998, and, during the financial crisis of 2000, Ricardo Bartís’ gloomy and intimate version of Krapp´s Last Tape. Currently, the experimental work of Grupo Krapp and the writer-director Lola Arias continue to contain Beckettian resonances, and great moral courage. As a newly-elected, far-right government promises to abolish Argentina’s ministry of culture, as well as curtailing civil, economic and human rights, Beckett´s theatre seems more relevant than ever.