Theatre in Mexico of the same and the other

Jean-Frdric Chevallier (English translation by Fui Lee Lunk) published in Rue Descartes # 57, Collge nternational de !hilosophie, !"F, !aris#

Me$ico is one o% the countries &here &ealth is 'ost une(ually distributed# ndeed,
the thirteenth econo'ic po&er in the &orld ) occupies the %i%ty third place in ter's o% hu'an develop'ent# *he &ealth o% the )+, richest part o% the population and o% the )+, poorest is -. / as an e$a'ple %or co'parison, in France it is 0,) 1# 2ue to this strong ine(uality in the distribution o% inco'e, the 3e$ican society is e$tre'ely seg'ented or, to speak 'ore clearly, divided in co'part'ents# t is &ithin this conte$t that one 'ust think and understand a theatre &hich, in good and in bad years, is only produced, presented and appreciated by an e$tre'ely reduced social group4 a s'all part o% the educated 'iddle class, not too conservative, no too progressive# n The Death of tragedy, 5eorge 6teiner supports the idea that 7theatre is the supre'e practice o% altruis'8 9# t is so'ething easy to understand4 theatre invites to practice otherness: the personal e$periences o% each depend necessarily on the other, those o% the actor %or the spectator, those o% the spectators %or the actor# ;ut in 3e$ico, everything see's to tend to erase this (uestion# <n the opening, the practitioner receives the 7criticis's8 o% her colleagues# *he rest o% the season, three (uarters o% the auditoriu' re'ain e'pty# =hen the (uestion o% the nu'ber o% spectators is raised, instead o% there being a (uestioning about the price o% the entry (&hich a'ounts to three ti'es the 'ini'u' daily &age) or about the (uality o% the &ork that is o%%ered (o%ten theatricalist and &ithout 'uch technical rigor), there is usually a talk / the 7poor8 being, it is said uneducated by hypothesis / about the need to educate the public, i#e# to trans%or' the' in a same# For the sa'e cause o% sameness, there is an insistence on the constitution o% a typically 3e$ican theatre> 6uch an atte'pt see's, to say the least, absurd4 the
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52! calculated in dollars and ad?usted according to purchasing po&er, World Economic Outlook Database 2 5! "#$# 2 %&D'! (DR! 2 5# 3 7Le th@tre est la prati(ue suprA'e de lBaltruis'e8, our translation %ro' 6teiner, 5#, )a #ort de la Trag*die , tr# Cose Celli, !aris, 5alli'ard, )009, pp# )9D-)9E#

theoretical tools &hich give it li%e do not do anything but reproducing European sche'as &hich are thirty years old / one thinks about the se'iology o% theatre, one speaks today o% the anthropology o% theatre# *he %athers o% 3e$ican &ould then be 5roto&ski (a !ole) ;oal (a ;rasilian) and ;arba (an talian)# <ne could li'it the criti(ue to point the non logical relation bet&een a nationalist pretence and the e$tra-national origin o% the re%erences &hich are used# ;ut, behind this %irst contradiction, a second one is hidden4 the tacit &eight o% Fegelian philosophy# ndeed, everything being taught or practiced concerning theatre should be thought and perceived in ter's o% passion, con%licts, destinies and then in ter's o% the representation o% passion, o% the con%lict produced by passion and o% the destiny &hich is carried by con%lict -# Fere, one &ill have guessed it, the proble' o% otherness co'es up again# 2ialectics i'poses the constitution o% the other as a slave, i#e# as an infra+self in the service o% the self, thus o% the same> *hus, theatre su%%ers %ro' to illnesses4 'aintaining social rigidity (&hich &as not al&ays the case, &hen one thinks o% the car,a theatre o% the %irst t&o thirds o% the GGth century) and a sel%-satis%action in a certain %or' o% conceptual rigidity# *hese t&o points boil do&n to ?ust one4 a terrible, sickly, 'orbid lack o% diversity> and this ?ust &hen lea%lets %or tourists, as &ell as the o%%icial discourse, do not tire o% insisting on the 7cultural diversity8 o% 3e$ico4 si$ty three languages are spoken in a country co'posed o% thirty one states# ;ecause this diversity &ould put into (uestion the survival o% the theatre establishment, the lack o% diversity denotes the absence o% a desire o% diversity, or to say it &ith other &ords, the absence o% a desire o% inventing# Could this &eakening o% desire be the conse(uence o% the over&hel'ing dyna'ics o% neo-liberalis', or o% the 3e$ican DH (a deeply castrating e$perience) or even o% the targeted killings &hich have been going on since thenI . <r is it, %inally and 'ore generally, the conse(uence o% an uninterrupted series o% acts o% control ai'ing to in fine ensure a &eakening o% the desire o% each o% usI
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*he si'pli%ication is certainly too rough# *he pages &hich Fegel &rote on dra'atic poetry &ould allo& %or readings richer than the (i'plicitly) 7Fegelian8 digest &hich the students 'ust %inally undergo# C%# Fegel, F#, Esth*ti-ue, !aris, !"F, )0.9, pp# )90-).9# 5 For instance4 the 'assacre, organiJed by the %ederal govern'ent and the state o% Chiapas, o% %orty t&o 'e'bers o% a social organiJation in the co''unity o% Kcteal ()00E), the 'urder (disguised as a suicide) o% the hu'an rights la&yer 2igna <choa (1++)), the i'prison'ent o% the CereJo brothers a%ter a %aked trial (1++)), the assassination o% the student and activist %or the rights o% the indigenous peoples !avel 5onJaleJ, presented as the inevitable end o% a drug addict ho'ose$ual (1++-), the kidnapping o% the ?ournalist and activist %or the rights o% &o'en, Lidia Cacho, organiJed by the governor o% the state o% !uebla (1++.), etc#

;e &hat it 'ay, it is a %act that the recent theatre productions &hich, on the one hand, have 'ani%ested a real desire o% o&n invention (LietJsche &ould here speak o% style) and &hich, on the other hand, have kno&n ho& to share this desire in a (ualitatively satis%ying 'anner, have been productions by directors &ho, given their pro%essional tra?ectory, are structurally outside o% the ideological strait?acket described above4 Lud&ik 3argules has polish ascendants, Claudio Malds Nury is invited to European %estivals on a regular basis, Cicardo 2OaJ has &orked in ;osnia, Cubn <rtiJ ?ust co'es back %ro' !rague, Fctor ;ourges &as partly educated in 6pain, 3auricio 5arcOa LoJano presents so'e o% his sho&s in Canada# Levertheless, &hat is at stake in the opening o% theatre to a larger spectru' o% the population lies else&here# *he task &ould be to open spaces o% theatre not so 'uch in order to allo& the others to enter the auditoriu', but 'ore to let those others get on the stage and, %ro' there, invent other theatres / those kinds o% theatre &hich desire and need#