A Dozen Orgies: Latin American Plays of the Twentieth Century

The plays in this anthology, in their English translations, are representative of some of the best dramatists of Latin America in the twentieth century. Many of these dramas have been performed before English speaking audiences throughout the United States, Canada and the Europe, and have been broadcast over the BBC. We find here the influence on Latin America of German Expressionism (Bertolt Brecht), and the Theatre of the Absurd (Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Luigi Pirandello, etc.). At the same time we have the focus of the playwrights’ attention to problems in their own countries: government corruption, police brutality, the difficulties facing the downtrodden, the weight of religion. Several dramatists in this anthology faced exile from their countries for speaking out on these themes. And yet, their plays were also celebrated throughout Latin America for both their messages and the power of the writing. The dramatists and the plays included here have won regional as well as international prizes. The playwrights included are Enrique Buenaventura (The Orgy, The Schoolteacher), Osvaldo Dragún (The Story of the Man Who Turned into a Dog, The Story of Panchito González), José Martínez Queirolo (R.I.P), Marco Denevi (Romeo Before the Corpse of Juliet, You Don’t Have to Complicate Happiness), Alvaro Menén Desleal (Black Light), Alberto Adellach (March), Rodolfo Santana (The Death of Alfred Grey), Carlos Solórzano (The Crucifixion), Jorge Díaz (The Eve of the Execution or Genesis Was Tomorrow).