The theater of Mario Benedetti. From parody and caricature to a ritual of violence and death.

Abstract

Mario Benedetti wrote four plays, but only two of them were put on stage; Ida y vuelta (Going and Coming Back) (Montevideo, 1958) and especially Pedro y el Capitan (Peter and the Captain) (Mexico City, 1979) enjoyed great success in all of America and Europe. The play (with Atahualpa del Cioppo as stage director) denounces certain violent extremes perpetrated by the civil and military dictatorship installed for more than a decade in Uruguay (1973-1985). In the face of the trauma the State terrorism had generated among the population, the intensity of which made any intent of expression difficult, some symbolic expressions, like this play, offered the possibility of relating the horror so it could be inscribed in the social memory, as a way to regain, by means of language, a shared imaginary statement.