Teatro, política y sociedad : la representación de la violencia en el fenómeno Teatro Abierto (1981)

During the last Argentinean dictatorship many theatre makers suffer censorship and were excluded from official theatres, cinemas, t v/radio programs and production. As response to this situation the most prominent national playwrights and directors came together to create a space for staging their plays. While showing the vitality of the local theatre, these plays addressed either directly or indirectly the issue of authoritarianism. As theatre of contestation they sought to exercise the freedom of expression and to recuperate a massive audience for theatre–as–art. In 1981 Teatro Abierto organized the first cycle which had anenormous success. Departing from different theories about politics in theatre and Dubbati’s proposal to consider theatre as an experience of convivio we examine the pragmatic dimension of TA by discussing the aesthetic strategies of Gambaro’s Decir sí and E. Pavlovsky’s Tercero incluido, all performed for the first time in 1981 for TA