Out of the Wings

Las brutas (c.1980), Juan Radrigán

Titles

English title: Las brutas
Date written: c. 1980
First publication date: 1980
First production date: 1980
Keywords: morality > honour, violence > suicide, identity > class/social standing, identity > gender, family > brothers/sisters, history > change/revolution, history > time, power > inter-personal/game play

Pitch

The play is based on the true story of three sisters of coya origin who, in October 1974, were found dead, tied together at the waist and hanging from a rock near their home in the remote Andean foothills in the desert region of northern Chile. Their dogs were hanging with them, while their sheep and goats were found slaughtered at their dwelling place, which was left spotlessly clean with no sign of blood. There wasn’t an explanation. Las brutas shows us the life of these sisters in the days leading up to this bewildering act.

When winter’s nearly over, when the plants are beginning to grow again, and the mountain flowers look so pretty, I feel that I want to know …

Synopsis

Justa, Luciana and Lucia are three sisters who have never left their original family – but they are no longer ‘young’ and their chance to lead their own independent lives and escape the tough existence in the wilderness of the remote Andean foothills has passed them by. An awareness of this loss is stirring, but it is too late.

The sisters are post-menopausal; Luciana and Lucia are childless and Justa has a daughter from whom she is estranged (we later find out why). The barren landscape where they try to survive seems to embody their way of life. There is no pleasure: no singing, no colourful clothes, just caring for the animals from which they prepare produce for their cousin to sell at a faraway market.

They wait for the infrequent visits of Don Javier, a travelling salesman, who is also their mediator with life beyond their closed reality. With no way of measuring time, the signs of nature anticipate his arrival. Don Javier comes with objects and news from an outside world, disrupting the status quo of their isolation. He brings the possibility of hope and pleasure in life, the possibility of companionship with men, something Lucia and Luciana have never experienced. They speak euphemistically about ‘loving’ but only Justa has experience with a man, although it was anything but an expression of love. It emerges that Justa’s daughter, Raimunda, was the product of a rape she suffered as a teenager by a man working with her father.

Don Javier also brings news of the ‘government man’ (Pinochet) and a threat of change under his dictatorship. Distressed by this threat, and by their diminishing physical strength, with all its implications in terms of their ability to survive in such extreme conditions, the sisters build towards desperate measures. By the end we come closer to understanding the bleak climax of this enigmatic play. (less)

Sources

The play is based on the true story of three sisters of coya origin who, in October 1974, were found dead, tied together at the waist and hanging from a rock near their home in the remote Andean foothills in the desert region of northern Chile. Their dogs were hanging with them, while their sheep and goats were found slaughtered at their dwelling place, which was, however, spotlessly clean with no sign of blood. There was no apparent explanation, although in the press there was talk of UFOs or military involvement (given the military coup by Pinochet in September 1973). (less)

Critical response

Juan Radrigán is widely regarded as one of Chile’s most exceptional playwrights. He is seen as representing the disenfranchised sectors of Chilean society - the poor and the oppressed - while at the same time creating characters which have a universal and archetypal resonance. With the theatre company, Teatro Telón, Radrigán’s works have been performed not only for the mainstream theatre-going public, but have also toured schools, labour unions and shantytowns throughout Chile. (less)

Editions

Juan Radrigán. 1984. Las brutas. In Teatro de Juan Radrigán (11 Obras). Santiago and Minneapolis, CENECA and The University of Minnesota

Useful readings and websites

Boyle, Catherine M. 1992. Chilean Theater, 1973 – 1985: Marginality, Power, Selfhood. Rutherford, NJ, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/index.asp?id_ut=juanradriganrojas,1937- (accessed November 2009) (Online Publication) (in Spanish)

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

Authors, Plays & Translators

Out of the Wings

Out of the Wings

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Las brutas (c.1980), Juan Radrigán

Authors, Plays & Translators