Wiener Festwochen

What should become of the place of horrors where Pinochet used to torture and often murder thousands of his enemies until 1988? The survivors of the infamous Villa Grimaldi in Santiago (the building complex was torn down in the last days of the Chilean dictatorship) are in deep, sometimes physically violent division about how to suitably honour and commemorate the torture victims. Now the decision is up to those born after the fact: three women, much too young to have a firsthand experience of the years of oppression, must choose between the options of reconstructing the complex, including its cells and torture chambers, or building a monument, information centre, memorial park or museum in its stead. “Why us?”, they ask. To what degree is their country’s history their own? Guillermo Calderón, one of Chile’s leading contemporary authors and directors and already a guest at Wiener Festwochen 2009 with his plays Neva and Diciembre, follows his brilliant new drama Villa with an equally charged second text, Discurso. In this work, the three actresses of the first part jointly hold an imagined farewell speech by Michelle Bachelet, from 2006 to 2010 Chile’s first woman president. Once a victim of the military regime herself, she embodied the hope of the political left for a redistribution of wealth. She asks herself whether reconciliation or at least a “re-encounter” might be possible without dashing expectations.

Author and Director Guillermo Calderón Stage and Costume Design María Fernanda Videla Production Manager and Assistant Director María Paz González Cast Francisca Lewin, Macarena Zamudio, Carla Romero

Guest Performance
Co-Production Teatro Playa, Santiago de Chile, Fundación Teatro a Mil, Santiago de Chile

19 €/discounts