REPRESIÓN Y DISENSO: LAS POLÍTICAS DE PROGRAMACIÓN DEL TEATRO PAYRÓ DURANTE LA ÚLTIMA DICTADURA MILITAR ARGENTINA (1976-1983)

Abstract

This article analyse some aspects of the work of the Argentinean theatre director Jaime Kogan and the Equipo Teatro Payró during the years of the last Argentinean military dictatorship (1976-1983). Founded in 1967, Equipo Teatro Payró was one of the most representative exponents of independent theatre activity in Buenos Aires during the 1970s and 1980s. In the repressive context, the production dynamics of the company expressed diverse modes of “micro-political” intervention and cultural survival. In the first part, I will describe the characteristics of the programming schemes in the first edition of the cycle “Teatro al mediodía” (1977) and I will observe how the repertory systems of the Payró theatre were one of the favorite targets of censorship. In a complementary way, I will point out how the representational frameworks of the shows illustrate the emergence of various “counter-censorial” strategies (Graham-Jones, 2001). Subsequently, I will describe the links between Kogan and some cultural initiatives by the Socialist Workers' Party (PST), based on the reconstruction of the event “Encuentro de las Artes” (1981-1982).