Out of the Wings

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La orgía (c.1972), Enrique Buenaventura

Titles
English title: The Orgy
Date written: c. 1972
First publication date: 1977
First production date: ?1972
Keywords: morality, violence > murder, violence > revenge, identity > class/social standing, history > change/revolution, ideology > politics, power > inter-personal/game play, power > use and abuse, love > lust
Pitch

This is an orgy of art and memories, it’s not something commercial.

On the thirtieth day of every month, it’s orgy day at a libidinous old woman’s house.  Three local vagrants and a dwarf are invited to take part in a game of make believe where, in return for a belly full of leftovers, they will act out the old woman’s fantasy of an orgy.  These beggars play their parts half-heartedly, wanting nothing more than to be fed, but when the woman tarries in delivering their payment of food, they revolt against her direction and the game (or play) comes to an end.  The old woman’s mute son returns home at the end of the day and finds his mother dead.  ‘Why?’, he asks the audience.    This grotesque black comedy is a fascinating example of Buenaventura’s Collective Creation theatre.

Synopsis

The play opens with an old woman arguing with her mute son because he has accused her of stealing his money, which she vehemently denies. Instead she tries to involve him in the role pl... (Read more...)

Critical response

Buenaventura is known as the founder of the New Colombian Theatre. He formed his own methodology for a theatre which would create a relationship with the audience, which would be alive... (Read more...)

Editions
  • Buenaventura, Enrique. 1977. La Orgía. In Enrique Buenaventura, Teatro. Bogotá, Instituto Colombiano de Cultura, pp. 135–59

Useful readings and websites
  • De la Campa, Ramón. 1980. ‘The New Latin American Stage: An Interview with E. Buenaventura,’ Theater 12.1, 19–21

  • Penny A. Wallace. 1975. ‘Enrique Buenaventura’s Los papeles del infierno’, Latin American Theatre Review, Fall, 45

  • Watson Espener, Maida. 1976. ‘Enrique Buenaventura’s Theory of the Committed Theatre,’ Latin American Theatre Review 9.2, 43-7

  • Weiss, Judith A, ed. 2004. Colombian Theatre in the Vortex: Seven Plays. Lewisburg. Bucknell University Press

Entry written by Gwendolen Mackeith. Last updated on 5 October 2010.

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