Adam Versényi
Sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay, South America’s second-smallest country, is often overshadowed by its larger neighbours. As this collection of contemporary Uruguayan plays in translation ably curated by William Gregory and Sophie Stevens amply demonstrates, however, Uruguayan culture is as rich as that of its larger neighbours. With a performance culture reaching back to pre-colonial days and encompassing music, dance, theatre, murga, carnival, and the literary arts, Uruguayan artists have distinguished themselves on both national and international stages. This anthology of twenty-first-century Uruguayan plays in translation brings its contemporary vibrancy into English for the first time, showcasing the eclectic and diverse nature of Uruguayan theatre today.
The plays presented here deal both with universal themes—the nature of death (Ana Versus Death), how cultural memory operates (Basic Principles for the Construction of Bridges; I Will Give You Verses, Not Children and Prelude to Anne), and particular intimate stories that open out into communal shared experience (Emotional Terror and They All Sleep at Siesta Time). Whether dealing with titans of Uruguayan letters such as Mario Benedetti or Delmira Agustini, historical figures of worldwide renown such as Anne Frank, or ordinary people coping with the loss of a loved one, the break-up of a relationship, or the search for safety and comfort, each of these plays is theatrically compelling, employing various techniques in innovative ways.
Gabriel Calderón’s Ana Versus Death employs a mixture of monologue, dialogue, and direct audience address as Ana’s attempts to protect her son from death due to cancer become increasingly desperate. In Leonor Courtoisie’s They All Sleep at Siesta Time, a great deal of the play is actually narrated in the poetic stage directions as The Girl, The Younger Girl, and A Little Girl take their picaresque journey to save an armadillo, a dog, and themselves as they lumber towards the sea and their celebratory demise aboard a tractor,
Suddenly the monstrous sea and silence. […] Naked they reach the sea and wade in as if they were dressed and with stones in their pockets. They sink, hug, and kiss each other on the mouth. In the distance, sirens.
In Jimena Márquez’s Basic Principles for the Construction of Bridges, a company of actors tasked with creating a piece celebrating Mario Benedetti’s centenary instead explore their inability to bridge the gap between themselves and Benedetti by presenting their non-completed commission as they un-act it for us. Through quoting from the work of both Benedetti and Idea Vilariño, poems composed by the actors themselves, and their own reactions to these interventions, the play delves into the legacy of the Uruguayan dictatorship and the memories it both forged and erased,
Flor Then we had a story. The story of the bridges, because we’re bridges there and back, bridges of memory and forgetting. And acting is militancy and to fight is to commit completely. Bridge.
Sandra Massera’s Prelude to Anne depicts a playwright attempting to write a new play about Anne Frank aided by Frank’s ghost and, in the course of the play, becoming a ghost herself as her final spurt of creativity results in a fatal heart attack. Anne and the playwright look on as the theatre company produces the new play to honour both of their legacies. Marianella Morena’s I Will Give You Verses, Not Children is an investigation of the life and death of Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini, and like Márquez’s Basic Principles for the Construction of Bridges, interrogates the nature of the theatre-making process itself, although in Morena’s play the playwright rather than the actors asks the questions as each of the three acts is given a subtitle: “Towards Life”, “Towards Realism”, “Hyperrealism”, and extensive stage directions that establish the performance style for that act, while the characters themselves question the nature of what they are engaged in doing:
Father […] How does one do a reconstruction? Does it go slowly, quickly, does one speak or is it done in silence? Is there an archaeology of memory, a museum of poetry, a theatre of the lost?
All of this strives to illuminate Agustini’s life and death, while also shining light on our own participation in the process as audience members and readers. Finally, Josefina Trias’ Emotional Terror employs the cycle of the seasons from summer to spring to chronicle a young woman’s loves, heartbreaks, and ability to heal through a series of monologues. Each of these plays is theatrically alive and provides multiple opportunities for creative approaches to performance.
Theatrical translation’s primary importance is to enrich our own theatrical cultures by exposing theatre professionals and audiences to a kind of theatricality lacking in our own environment. Through a discerning selection of plays, and commissioning of both well-known and lesser-known theatrical translators to bring those plays to life in English, Gregory and Stevens bring us a cornucopia of twenty-first-century Uruguayan playwrighting. Unpack it. Sate yourself. Let it bloom.
Adam Versényi, Professor of Dramaturgy in the Department of Dramatic Art, Senior Dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill