The Real is not Always Reproduced in the Same Way: Mi vida después and El año en que nací by Lola Arias

Abstract

Both Mi vida después [My Life After] (2009) and El año en que nací [The Year I was Born] (2011), created by Argentinean playwright-director Lola Arias, are typically categorized as and thus studied as examples of “new documentary theatre.” Nevertheless, the differences separating the two projects –one developed in Argentina and the other in Chile, with actors born during their respective country’s dictatorship– are considerable. This essay constitutes an inquiry of the similarities and differences between two productions that are often considered to be the result of a single process.