To See or Not to See: Questioning the Essence of Theatre in Javier Daulte's ¿Estás ahí?

Although theatre has generally staged presence, the confluence of characters (if indeed a confluence marked principally by conflict), in ¿Estás ahí? by Argentine Javier Daulte takes a more difficult route in order to stage absence, the spatial and psychological dis-encounters on which human relationships, theatre, and even knowledge in general are constructed. This article not only examines how Daulte uses scenic space as a tool to generate meaning and reveal those aspects of theatre that have traditionally remained "invisible," but it also argues that the issues of space and visibility function as comments on theatre and representation in general as well as on human interpersonal relationships and the construction of knowledge(s). (SM

Women and Revolution: Maruxa Vilalta's 1910

The "birth" of the modern Mexican nation is generally considered to be 1910, the start of the Mexican Revolution. That same revolution led to the creation of the PRI, which virtually controlled Mexican politics until Vicente Fox’s election to the presidency in 2000. In this paper, I analyze Maruxa Vilalta’s presentation of the women of the Mexican Revolution in her recent play, 1910. As depicted by Vilalta, the nation "born" of the founding revolutionary fathers not only accomplished very little for the majority of men, it did nothing to "free" women from their oppression by those "fathers" although it did effectively erase their role in that metaphoric "birth." (SM

Telling Stories: Martha Stutz by Javier Daulte

Assuming a postmodern stance, Martha Stutz (1995) by Argentine playwright Javier Daulte challenges the authority of narrative as it juxtaposes a child’s narrative, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, with the juridico-journalistic narrative of a child’s disappearance (Martha Stutz in Córdoba in 1938). The dramatic action of the play is precisely that of telling and performing stories over and over again, as characters struggle for narrative dominance and the power to impose their version of events. Although ostensibly modeled on the detective story genre, the play’s insistence on repetition, particularly the repetition of words and stories, precludes the closure we generally associate with that genre. Instead, the play underscores the capacity of language and narrative to cover over, conceal disappearance and absence. In spite of all the narratives proferred, "Martha" remains a terrifying, inexplicable absence. (SM