¿Derechos humanos o renuncia a la reparación humanitaria? Compromisos políticos del teatro colombiano en dos obras sobre los 'falsos positivos'

Abstract

This article explores the political commitment of two contemporary Colombian plays that deal with one of the most recent and outrageous scandals of state violence in Colombia: the "false positives." The two plays—Donde se decomponen las colas de los burros (2009), by Umbral Teatro, and Antígonas, tribunal de mujeres (2013), by Tramaluna Teatro—prolong the tradition of Colombian "Nuevo Teatro" in relation to the denunciation of violence, the reconstruction of collective memory, and the call for a public debate about the historic causes of violence and power abuses. But a comparison of the two pieces will show that in spite of their common interest in reconstructing the truth of the "false positives," it is possible to identify two opposite views on the relation between contemporary Colombian theatre and violence. On the one hand, the commitment to symbolic reparation of the victims of human rights violations, and, on the other hand, the renunciation of humanitarian reparation in an effort to bring to light the common condition of vulnerability that lies beneath the very experience of violence. At stake are the political powers attributed to theatre in our time.