Presence and Archive: Documentary Strategies in two Chilean Plays

Abstract

This article examines two Chilean plays that premiered in 2017: Ñuke directed by Paula González Seguel, and Mateluna directed by Guillermo Calderón. The first addresses the violence that affects Mapuche communities in the present, while the second focuses on the radical resistance organizations that fought against the Chilean dictatorship. The analysis of these two works centers on some strategies they use to question the relations and boundaries between the staging and the extradiegetic dimension. In Ñuke, this is done by including documentary elements; in Mateluna, through its reappropriation of the archive.