Theater and Terrorism: Griselda Gambaro's "Information for Foreigners" Author(s): Diana Taylor Source: Theatre Journal, Vol.

42, No. 2 (May, 1990), pp. 165-182 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3207753 . Accessed: 15/10/2013 12:37
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Theater and Terrorism: Griselda Gambaro's Information for Foreigners

Diana Taylor
in a "well-run debatedby Questionsabout theplace of theater society," originally Plato and Aristotle, in criminal takeon a new meaning,as well as a specialurgency, statesin whichtheaters arebombedand spectacular actsofcruelty exceedtheboundariesof the stage. In Argentina terrorism duringthe 1970sbothStateand anti-State and control itsbehavior competedto capturethepublic'sattention by staging highly and abductions, dramatic actsofviolence.'Terrorism, withitsscenesoftorture proved and on a symbolic level. Terrorists dressed their theatrical bothon a practical highly Thevictims, likeactors, stoodin (albeit partsand setthedramainmotion. unwillingly) forsomeone or something else. Antagonists appeared on the scene as ifby magic; ofcorpsesat theappropriate protagonists "disappeared"intothinair.The revelation momentwas as typicalof terrorism as of the Elizabethanstage. Crimes became After allow us to deny "unreal,"invisiblein theirtheatricality. all, doesn't theater what we see with our own eyes? Even with fifteen thousand people missingin

Diana Taylor teaches Literature at Dartmouth a Spanishand Comparative College.She has edited critical edition on Griselda Gambaro and Jose ofArrabal(1984), and a collection ofcritical essays Triana(1989); sheis also the author ofTheater of Crisis: Essays on Modern Latin American Theater. Shedirects Dartmouth's PrimerActo,and is working on a book Hispanictheater group, entitled Theater and Terror,a study LatinAmerica's oftheater staged during military dictatorships of the1970s.

'There was growing toOnganias which inthecordobazo, culminated opposition repressive policies, thehuge riotand strike in Cordobain 1969,thatfortwo days turned thecity into"a theater for battles between rioters and police";see David Rock,Argentina: 1516-1987 Unipitched (Berkeley: ofCalifornia 349.Groupsofrebel formed. in 1970, three new Press,1987), versity groups Beginning Peronist -the Montoneros, theFuerzas Armadas Peronistas groups appeared (FAP),and theFuerzas ArmadasRevolucinarias headed by MarioFir(FAR).The Peronist groupsalliedas Montoneros, menich.Therewere non-Peronist the People's Revolutionary parties, Army. . . (ERP, a small and theright-wing the"Dirty Trotskyite party) groupMano(or Hand).It becameclearthatduring War"themilitary itself was manipulating inorder these tojustify itsownrepressive measures. groups In "Dirty Secrets ofthe'Dirty EdwinAnderson notesthat MarioFirmenich was in War,'" Martin fact a doubleagentfor themilitary; see TheNation, 13 March1989, 340.

165

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166

/ Diana Taylor

between1977and 1982,and continuing Central Argentina disappearances throughout and SouthAmericatoday,stateauthorities assure shattered that populations everyin a theater, The witnesses,like obedientspectators were thingis under control.2 their the to disbelief. Terrorism draws on theatrical encouraged suspend propensity to bind theaudienceand to paralyzeit. Theatrical convention allows simultaneously formass splitting, the audience to either or intellecenabling respond emotionally in ArTerrorism tuallyto the actionit sees onstagewithout responding physically. this convention to atomize the victimized further, gentinapushed populationand to precludethe possibility of solidarity and mobilization; was vulnerable, everyone theunexpected attack could comeanytime, from As the case of anywhere. Argentina acts of terrorism could endow the nationalframewitha strangespecillustrated, an aura of tragedyenveloped the country; the suspense mounted;the tacularity; crisisseemedfated; and theMothers ofthePlaza de Mayo,likea Greekchorus,were a physicalreminder of the personaland nationaldramasthatviolenceconspiredto erase from history. All thisis not to suggestthatterrorism is essentially Terrorism representational.3 and thetorture associatedwithitin Argentina duringtheSeventieswerenot theater or magic, but theywere designed to look thatway.4 They were acts of deliberately orchestrated violence set in motionto destabilizethe Argentine society,to divert fromthe urgentpoliticaland economiccontradictions public attention facingthe The recognition of theperformance and torture does country.5 qualitiesof terrorism not reduce themto performance it allows fortheir acts; on the contrary, demystification.GriseldaGambaro,one of Argentina's mostprominent has unplaywrights,

in countries still deathlistsare a dailyreality likeGuatemala, torture, 2Abductions, kidnappings, El Salvador, and Colombia. in herforeword MaleFantasies, to KlausTheweleit's trans. 3Barbara Ehrenreich, Stephen Conway warns fascist violence as of Minnesota Press, 1987), interpreting (Minneapolis: against University hereis that, too often, fascism tendsto becomerepresenta"The problem primarily performative: In thecommonplace thatmostofus attenuated version ofpsychoanalytic tional, theory symbolic. is 'really' aboutsomething else-for example, hohave unthinkingly fascism repressed accepted, a misdirected at that becomes Fascist murder wayofgetting 'something mosexuality. else'--a symin Male himself of performance art"(xi). As Klaus Theweleit bolicact, if not a variety suggests and destroying others is nota symbolic linkedto desire;torturing violence is intimately Fantasies, wantsto do. actbutrather, whatthefascist really Theater Point inTake Bodies: atthe Herbert Blaunotes, 4Terrorism, (Urbana: Vanishing University upthe There is a plot,choreography, ofIllinois "has alwaysbeendesigned Press,1982), coup theatrically. in The ofthestagedperformance" du theatre, and all theattendant (272).ElaineScarry, apparatus refers totorture, inPain(NewYork: Oxford Press,1985), repeatedly metaphorically, University Body out" (27), as an "obsceneand pathetic as theater: the "mimeof uncreating" (20), as an "acting oftheworld"(38). Subsequent "dramatizes thedisintegration to Scarry, drama"(56). The torturer, in thetext. areincluded page references and 5InModern Latin America Press,1984),ThomasE. Skidmore (New York:Oxford University toterrorize ina tactic werevictims H. Smith write that "the'disappeared' Peter consciously designed wenton throughout the itspopulation thecountry" (107). The attack against by thegovernment culminated in the 1974-77 and Isabel's term 1973-74 term Seventies, Per6n's (106) (105), during War." "Dirty

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AND TERRORISM / 167 THEATER of Argentina's violentpolitics dertaken to make visiblethe obfuscating theatricality in the she 1963. theater since 1960s,her plays plays During began writing through civilconflict fratricidal natureofArgentina's focusedon theincreasingly (TheSiamese in which culminated the Twins,1965) Onganfacoup of 1966. particularly repressive "A deadlytoxin had of Criminal become an violence acceptedpart political struggle: In than written between more had entered theArgentine plays bodypolitic."6 twenty and criminal violence of and focuses on the themes 1963 1986,Gambaro persecution the on from country's ongoingfasresulting warring politicalfactions, Argentina's its anti-semitism, itsracism.7 The important cinationwithfascism, on its misogyny, modulationsin Gambaro's plays duringthese threedecades parallel Argentina's and the Peronists of in leadership:the struggle between the military radical shifts ofthe1970s(which the1960s;Per6n'ssecond ascensionto powerand thePeronismo did not end with Per6n's death in 1974 nor the depositionof his wife "Isabelita" in 1977);the military and dictatorship withits "dirty from the presidency takeover war" from1977 to 1983; the new democracyunder Alfonsinin 1983. During the most 1970s, Gambaro receiveddeath threats.Althoughshe is one of Argentina's at home and abroad,whose plays are stagednot respectedand popularplaywrights theaters the UnitedStates but throughout only in Buenos Aires's most prestigious and Europe,herpublishedplayswerecensoredand hernew playswentunpublished, She was forcedinto exile from1980-1982.In 1981, only in manuscript. circulating in downtownBuenos Aires run her the of the Picaderotheater Yes, during Saying was burnedto the ground. in (1973), the mostcomplexof her pieces, is a chronicle Information forForeigners various formsof violence--from of theatrical twentyscenes presenting fragments and Lorca's BloodWedding, to scientific exof violence like Othello representations and abductions,to staged and carriedout on human bodies, to torture periments of terrorist attacks.The spectators are warnedbeforethey "spontaneous"incidents enter: "The show is restricted, to those under 35 and those over 36. prohibited ... Everyone else can comein without difficulties. No obscenities or strong language.

6Ibid., 103. is notonlyone ofArgentina's Gambaro foremost with almost 7Griselda (b. 1928) playwrights thirty sheis also an award-winning author ofsevennovelsand numerous short stories. playstohercredit, A fewofherworks in William havebeenpublished in English, inthe ed., Voices I. Oliver, ofChange Theater of TexasPress,1971),as well as in French, German, (Austin: Spanish-American University theUnitedStates,Europeand Latin Czech, and Polish.Her playshave been stagedthroughout America. in theUnited She has lectured at Yale,Cornell, States, Rice,and the Dartmouth, widely ofTexasat Austin, academic institutions. She has won a number ofawards University amongother and prizesfor theFondoNacional and a Guggenheim de las Artes, literature, including Fellowship. Gambarois of a working class family in Argentina, descendedfrom Italiangrandparents. The is primarily madeup ofSpanish and Italian sincetheindigenous descendants, Argentine population was almost exterminated in themid-nineteenth Gambaro does not population completely century. anti-semitism in Information, thepersecution ofJews and theNazi-like go intoArgentine although is thesubject ofherplay,The in Voices See Jacobo Prisoner Timerman's (1967), military Camp of Change.

morecomplete ofanti-semitism the"Dirty War." description during

Without a Name, Cell Without a Number, trans. Toby Talbot (New York: Vintage Books, 1982) fora

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168 / DianaTaylor
Christian. We'rein 1971. The piece respondsto our way oflife:Argentine, Western, I ask you not to separate,and to remainsilent"(Information, 70).8 of terrorism and the examinesnot only the theatricality Information forForeigners it us as but also the our or bystanders, way in perception, paralyzes way shapes in Theater is an unstable vehicle for whichtheater participates ideologicalstruggle. it as of as is of as instrumental them, clarifying problems expression, capable obscuring in mythifying as in working to end it. By stagingviolence,Gambaro victimization to control illusionistic drawsattention to how theater's qualitiescan be manipulated but can the of how see how what see and not only it, they deny reality they people of torture and the whattheysee and know to be true,forexample ongoingpractice knewwhatwas goingon The populationin and outsideArgentina criminal politics. that notknow theArgentine the1970s.Did anyonereally military government during terrorized its people between 1977 and 1982?Did anyone reallynot systematically witheconomicaid and know thattheAmerican supportedthemilitary government be diverted so thatit can The questionis, how can the public's attention training?9 in the dismissthatknowledgeand claiminnocence?How does theater participate Can theater help spectators campaigneitherto conceal or to expose information? as AugustoBoal would lethalpredicament, and therefore respondto,their recognize, that illusion does itoffer themtheconsoling Or,on thecontrary, byattending argue?1' to sit passively about it? By allowingspectators theater theyare doing something to experience the thrills and watchothersengage in conflict, by enablingspectators the diffuse cathartic and from benefit release, arguably might spectacles vicariously Frantz Fanon advocates like and frustration maintain, that, revolutionary energy rage, undermine itsethos aesthetics Does theater's changetheunlivablesituation.11 might would as Susan violence or, argue,pornographically, Sontag seductively bydepicting

2 (BuenosAires:Ediciones de la Flor,1987). are to Teatro to Information for Foreigners sReferences is also in Argentina the1970s(Gambaro novelswerepublished Whileseveral ofGambaro's during in Argentina thisperiod.The herplayswerenot published an award-winning novelist), during included dela Flor cameoutin 1984.Information, ofGambaro's collection byEdiciones playspublished beenperformed. itspublication andhas never inmanuscript form before inthis circulated collection, thereading toreach different itsattempts doesnotinvalidate Thiscircumstance audiences, including suchas, what we couldpose aboutitsperformance, The questions audienceofthetitle. (foreign) or if Girlsome dryclothes, thetortured of therealaudienceoffered wouldhappenifa member is The question someonewalkedout,are stillvalid.Whatwouldhappenifsomeoneresponded? actsofrepression and that ithas nothappened, is that Theanswer nothypothetical. (thecensorship is toscrutinize Theplay'sintent inArgentina and elsewhere. ofthis keephappening playincluded), that itknowsto be true. thepublic's to denythefacts ability World Fascism: andThird Connection TheWashington and EdwardS. Herman 'See Noam Chomsky BlackRose Books,1979). ThePolitical (Montreal: Rights Economy ofHuman "a very efficient is a weapon"for Boalarguesthat "theatre weapon. society, changing '0Augusto and trans. CharlesA. McBride forit." See Theatre Forthisreasonone mustfight oftheOppressed, ix. Theatre Communications Leal McBride Maria-Odilia (New York: Group,1985), for cathartic also has implications world inthecolonial "Fanon'sposition on danceandpossession world shouldtakeintoconsideration ofthecolonial in other countries: theater colonized "anystudy of theform takesprecisely The native's relaxation ofthedanceand ofpossession. thephenomena arecanalized, violence and themostimpelling inwhich acuteaggressivity a muscular themost orgy Constance trans. and conjured transformed Earth, (New Farrington ofthe away";see TheWretched 57. York: GrovePress,1968),

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AND TERRORISM / 169 THEATER enablingthe audience to enjoy acts it would otherwise"see withpain" (following the line of reasoningdrawn out fromAristotle to Adorno'2)?Or, rather, does the mere existenceof outspoken theaterlike Gambaro's become a "speech act" that a challengeto those who maintaintheir directly presents,ratherthan represents, force? Is theater safe? Does eitherthe seer power by "watching"somehow protect or the seen? The implications of these questionsalso exceed the boundariesof the not onlyto Argentina, not stage. The issues raisedin Gambaro'sInformation pertain to Latin American raise about violence evetheater; only they questions "watching" rywhere. in Argentina in 1971,Gambaro'sInformation Set explicitly not onlythematizes but re-creates the climateof terror. The actiontakes place in a house. The audience is each led through thehouse by a Guide introducing splitup intogroupsupon arrival, the different scenes withshortexcerpts about abductionsand murders takenfrom actual contemporary This information is forforeigners. newspapers,"information" accessiblebothto the audience in the house and to the readingpublicin verifiable, and outsideArgentina.13Thereare thustwo audiences,thegroupswalkingthrough thehouse and thereadingaudience outsideArgentina, the "foreigners" of the title, thatis, us. The audience followsthe Guide down long, darkpassageways cluttered withcorpses and prisoners, in and out up and down steep, dangerousstaircases, of small roomsin whichisolated acts of torture rehearsalsare forever or theatrical the finalmomentsof Othello. being played out. In one room,actorsare rehearsing In another, a Mothersings a lullabyfrom BloodWedding to her child. The highlight of the tour is the visitto the catacombsin the basement,the tombs of martyred Christians.Althougha memberof the group (actuallyan actor) is attackedand abductedbyunidentified hisgrouptooverlook theviolent men,theGuideencourages intrusions. He dispels the incessant,unexpectedoutbursts of violenceas marginal or accidentalin relationto the audience's rightto entertainment. As screamsand shoutsechothrough thehalls,he clamors for and "a little amusement damnit!" gaiety, and grumbles about the bad scripts and the unsavorysubjectmatter. Complaining that"moderntheater is likethat!No respect"(107),he nonetheless pointsout to the thatnow thattheyhave paid fortheirtickets, spectators theymightas well enjoy the show.14

theSignofSaturn in Poetics, 12SusanSontag,Under (New York:NoondayPress,1980).Aristotle trans. GeraldF. Else (AnnArbor: ofMichigan thatthepleasure Press,1973),suggests University afforded is rootedin humannature, it difficult, ifnot by mimetic representation thereby making to separate from imitation to itsextreme, thisargument leads to (20). Carried impossible, pleasure liketheone advancedbyTheodor Adorno that artdenigrates and victimization: positions suffering "The aesthetic of stylization, and even the solemnprayer of thechorus, makesan unprinciple thinkable fate itis transfigured, ofitshorror removed. appeartohavehad somemeaning; something Thisalonedoesan injustice tothevictims..."; see "Commitment," inAesthetics andPolitics (London: Verso,1986),189. are detailed in pressreports from La 1970;see La Prensa, 13"Theseincidents Aprilto December Nacidn and Clarfn, for and Rock, 441. 1516-1987, example," Argentina: Feitlowitz hasrecently translated Sincehertranslation (1987) '4Marguerite Information for Foreigners. is unpublished and reached I had initiated me after thisstudy, thetranslations used in thistext are myown.

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betweenpublic The house as theatrical space subvertsthe lines of demarcation and privateand emphasizes the corrosive and contagiousnatureof violencethat violenceare not Scenes ofpolitical blursall physical, moraland judicialframeworks. in chambersbut are played out on public streets, limitedto prisons and torture is of the which bodies. The takeover on human house, houses, concurrently private a social structure, the family home, and the body's protective shell,indicatesthat and mutually the threespaces-body, family, supporsociety-are interconnected theexistence of any in the home "getsus wherewe live," nullifying tive.Terrorism has shattered the limits confrontation on the human safespace. Staging body political a teras a whole into and transformed of personhood,gutteddomesticity, society Like term "environmental" theater. new to the theatrical set, meaning rifying giving the audience. Gamderacinates terrorism which atomizespopulations,Information in dramatic no baro's play as a whole has no plot,no logical"conflict" terminology, in no characters no climax, resolution, fragmented any psychological sense--simply scenes and a series of roles, such as Guide, Guard, Tortured Girl,AbductedMan the audience plays a major,and highly and, of course,Audience. As in terrorism, the dark passages, peeringthrough It makes its role. way through disconcerting, the Guide remindshis group to watch their No one is and doors. safe, half-open and of terrorism and house reflects the invasivetactics their The step pocketbooks. in all this house. we are Terror torture. deterritorializes; foreigners thepublic'sperception thetour, callsattention tothewaythat Gambaro Throughout in The for is directed and controlled those Guide, example,physically authority. by ushershis group from room to room. He tellshis groupwhere and when to look, but ladies can't see this.The men and he censorswhat theviewerscan see: "Sorry, like.. ." (89). Muchofthis"guidance"perhapsseemsinoffensive, can,ifthey maybe even necessary.The Guide, after all, does thisfora living;we have neverbeen in While the house beforeand we do not know our way around. Who can we trust? thismay be Hell, though,this Guide is no Virgil.He steershis group away from theperpetrators ofthedeeds. He himself theatrocity, butonlyto protect participates as he flashes"a wide, in theviolence,pushingthecorpsesout ofsightwithhis foot, revealshis hatredof women; he omits fakesmile" at his group (88). He constantly "ladies" ofthe"ladiesand gentlemen" the is literal translation "eats,"90) (the claiming thatit takes too long to say the whole phrase ("me como las sefioras");he thrusts he complainsabout the "ungrateful" Girl'sskirt; his hand underthe tortured Girl, as women Difficult women? "who understands gender" (89). However, muttering thehouse, we realizethattheseseemingly and killedthroughout are raped,tortured and gesturesin facttie intoa rampantnational "personal" sexistremarks trifling, and Felix Guattari Deleuze As Gilles "desiringpointout in Anti-Oedipus, misogyny. is never ... Thus fantasy as social is one and the same production. thing production and thus to allusion The Guide's it is individual; omitting "eating" groupfantasy."15 and forthe dehumanization ofa groupfantasy indicative "theladies" is profoundly of"subversive" elimination women,the"enemies"ofthestate.Whenhe grabsunder
trans.RobertHurley, and Schizophrenia, "'GillesDeleuze and FelixGuattari, Capitalism Anti-Oedipus: of Minnesota Press, 1983), 30. Mark Seem, Helen R. Lane (Minneapolis: University

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THEATER AND TERRORISM / 171 he in factsignalsthatwomen's sexual organsare the target the Girl'sskirt, of most demonstrates that the also attackson women.16 distinction However, Information between "good women" and "bad women," at least tentatively upheld by the proin Arin has been subverted thatKlaus Theweleitstudies Male Fantasies, tofascists of her children dispels gentina.The scene in whichthe Motheris abductedin front all myths between"bad" and "motherly" about differentiation women,a distinction The Mothermay remindher which has been particularly rigidin Latin America.17 abductorsthat "no one would harm a mother!"(92), the police may cling to the thatno one is punishedunjustly, fiction "an eye foran eye" (94), but theyorderthe Motherto stripand it is clearthatshe willbe raped just the same. theauthority can be dangerous ofthosein power,Gambaroillustrates, Respectfor indeed. It can lead innocent and even to be indirect, direct, bystanders participants in torture. As the spectators followthe Guide into anotherroom,the Milgramexis underway, a restaging ofan actualexperiment carried out at Yale, Princeperiment in and the The Munich of the process veil 1960s.'8 ton, pseudo-scientific trappings thefactthatit actuallytestsan individual'scapacity forinflicting pain and death on a stranger the The an man on ordersof "expert." young playing"pupil" is strapped to a chairand givenelectric thepupil shocksbytheman playing"teacher." Although suffers from a bad heart,theExperimenter to increasethevoltage. urgestheteacher While the teacherknows thatthe shockscould cause the pupil's death, the Experimenter thatplace obedienceto authority overperpositsthe traditional arguments sonal responsibility: theexperiment is necessary; itis forthegreater social good; the man dialingup thelethalvoltageis not responsible forthevictim's death. How can thattheyknow to be true?By listening to an experttelling people deny a reality themthatthescene is reallysomething in a dramathatinverts else, by participating rolesand changesnames to createtheillusionofinnocence.The theatricality of the It makespeople on a practical fulfills itsreal function. level,admirably proceedings, in an actthey find Whilemostpeople probably would otherwise participate repellent. with the Massuist that is "torture not butmorally disagree position merely permissible

MaleFantasies, itis specific ofthefemale '6See Theweleit, often, I, 191:"Strikingly parts bodythat are attacked: themouth, thebuttocks, and the entire area beneaththewoman'sskirts." Ximena Bunster-Burotto's in LatinAmerica," in June Nash "Surviving BeyondFear:Womenand Torture and HelenSafa,Women andChange inLatin America and Garvey, also (Massachusetts: 1986), Bergin theprevalence ofattacks on thewoman'ssexualorgans. emphasizes Minnesota 22 (1984):105-115, Review Franco that indicates Heroines," Jean 17In "Self-Destructing the "division of the traditional cityintopublic(male) spaces and private space wherewomen's from motherhood orvirginity has deeply affected bothpolitical in Latin life America powerderives and theimaginary on which literature draws... theallegorization ofwomencharacters repertoire in their invariant of mother, or love object"(105). Ximena Bunstervirtually positions prostitute Burotto alsonotes that inLatin women America are"basically andvaluedonly as mothers, recognized after theBlessedVirgin Mother" and documents howtorture ofwomeninArgentina often involved "iconsoftheVirgin The victims werebeatenuntil "in front ofthe Mary." theylostconsciousness andChange, 299. imageoftheVirgin Mary";see Nash and Safa,Women an account oftheexperiment see Stanley "ThePerils ofObedience" in The Norton Milgram's "sFor Reader: An Anthology 7thed., ed. Arthur M. Eastman et al. (New York: Norton Prose, ofExpository & Company, 1988),606-618.

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172 / DianaTaylor
theMilgram ofthepopulationcan mandatory," experiment provedthatthemajority be deformed into torturers 65% the of American tested;85% potentially participants and torturers are notquite themonstrous oftheGerman.19 So torture Otherwe like to imagine.And the audience obediently moves from roomto room. How can one distanceoneselffrom the reality one sees withone's own eyes? By it into theater.Gambaro's scenariosof torture thattheatrical demonstrate turning are essentialforthe continuedfunctioning of torture, and role-playing distancing A youngwoman, evenwhentheseactsarenotobscured by"professional" trappings. in a chair,has just been submitted wet and shivering totally despondent,dripping The visual image of the tortured woman is incongruent withthe to the submarino. or apparentbenevolenceof the scene, forthe Guard acts as if he were her friend her.He complainsabout the "shitty service"(no towels)and lovertrying to protect to the lends her his coat. As he loads his pistol,he asks "Why so sad? (Signaling will Too us. to (Puts many people. They're watching spectators) Nothing happen you. the the roles the Guard inverts and hispistol Like victimizer, (72). prototypical away)" the violence.It is her fault;he is onlytrying to blames the victim forprecipitating in it all. wants to end her loaded case she leaves his he pistoljust help; generously even on a practical oftorture, level,goes beyondthese However,thetheatricality fromthe of torture shams of good will. The theatricality protectsthe victimizers thesplit betweenappearanceand reality, for oftheir actions byallowing repercussions A partofthetorturer can carry on thegruesome thesplit betweenactionand emotion. of the whole personality, the "innocence"and "integrity" work,splitoffto protect of thebad Shui off wherethe splitting muchlikein Brecht's GoodPerson ofSetzuan, and Nazi discourse,like Ta supportstheimageofa good Shen Te. Studieson fascist Friedlander's TheNazi Doctors, Lifton's ofBanality, Reflections Kaplan's Reproductions in splitting on Nazism,show thatthe "psychicnumbing"and dissociation implicit is the opposite,through also worksthrough doubling.20Like the actor,the torturer of atrocious acts an villain and a monstrous citizen, guilty ordinary simultaneously theroomwithitsprops,itsscripts thistheatrical and guiltless ofthem.Within frame, can safely the torturers and its professional forurginginformation, terminology, maim kill their victims can or others. with the annihilation of by They proceed themare are that themselves else; they defending they doingsomething convincing out a "necthe dangerousenemyor theyare carrying from selves and the country the tormentors or Even scientific when, when, perhapsespecially essary" experiment. in Male described of fascist murderers in the as cases Fantasies, they enjoy killing, must place theiractions withina framethat justifiesand exoneratesthem. The

becamea classic Bataille oftheAlgerian Massu'smemoirs 19General war,La Vraie d'Algers, Jacques Michael Levinfollows and Massuist. suchas Massuism riseto expressions oftorture, defense giving

Torture see EdwardPeters, 619. Fora general (New York:BasilBlackwell, Prose, studyon torture 1985). TheNazi Doctors 20Robert Lifton, (New York:BasicBooks,1986),420. See also AliceYaeger Jay
andFrench Intellectual Literature, Fascism, Life (Minneapolis: University ofBanality: Kaplan, Reproductions

Reader: An Anthology TheNorton theMassuist line ofargumentin "The Case ForTorture," ofExpository

trans. ThomasWeyr onNazism, ofMinnesota (New York: Press,1986);Saul Friedlander, Reflections & Row,1984). Harper

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THEATER AND TERRORISM / 173 inherent in constructing this otherreality makes the action "safe" for theatricality the torturer. The theatricality remainscentral,thoughless clear,in respectto the of torture and terrorism. In TheBody in Pain,Elaine Scarry audience's role in torture proposes thattheexercise ofpower,howeverabusive,lendscredibility to thetottering regime. She observes that crisis "thesheermaterial factualness during periodsofsocio-political of the human body will be borrowedto lend thatculturalconstruct the aura of " (14). Torture,that "grotesquepiece of compensatory 'realness' and 'certainty' drama"(28),converts thereality of"absolutepain" intothe"fiction ofabsolutepower" ofthisobsceneand pathetic drama,it is not the (27). "Now, at least fortheduration pain but the regimethatis total,not the pain but the regimethatis able to eclipse all else, not the pain but the regimethatis able to dissolvethe world" (56). As beautifully articulated and compellingas Scarry'sargumentis, one should that she omits one vitalplayer:the spectator. Torture works on several recognize levelssimultaneously. It annihilates It destroys thevictim. thevictim's somefamily, timesintolatergenerations, as when children are forced to watchthebrutalization, It undermines the immediate rape, and murderof theirparents("Familytorture"). that is often threatened but unable to put an end to torture. involved, community It affects the largerinternational that,even when it does not feelimcommunity stillfeelspowerlessto put an end to it. The public(national threatened, mediately and international) assist in the conversion of pain to power. Terrorism and torture are notdesignedto proveto thevictims thattheregime has thepowerto exterminate them-such proofis manifested in the violentact itself. The aim of terrorism and torture is to proveto thepopulationat largethattheregime has thepowerto control it. The public,the one walkingthrough thehouse and theforeigners readingnewsdrama." papersare bothin different ways theintendedaudienceofterror's "pathetic The amplification of torture victims can paralyzean by means of which twenty entire or functions means of its Confronted with community country by theatricality. the reality of torture, our tendencyas audience, as in the traditional is to theater, with the in this with the victim. We cannot with case, identify protagonist, identify thetorturer without thesadistictendencies thatmakeup partofour acknowledging world.We feelforthetortured Girl,forthekidnapped (usually)unconsciousfantasy Mother.But Gambaro,almostin a Brechtian does not allow us to identify fashion, too closelywiththem,forshe demonstrates thatour identification withthe victim is both misleadingand disempowering. We are not being victimized; we have a for choice and that for action the victim does have. not and Torture terrorism capacity function most effectively when membersof the populationfeelas iftheywere the choice of victimsserves to victim,as if they were next on the list. The arbitrary theidentification betweenpublicand victim therandom strengthen by accentuating natureof this atrocity to us); studies indicatethatveryfew of the (it couldhappen victims were actually activeor had information to give their tormentors.21 politically
TheBody in Pain,28; EdwardPeter,Torture; Prisoner Without a Timerman, Jacobo Scarry, 21See Name. Thesituation described inNunca Mdssuccinctly states a conclusion aboutthegratuitous nature oftheinterrogation which coincides withthefindings in thedifferent studies: reported "Theywere

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The aim of torture to Edward Peters,to reduce the victim to "poweris, according forcedcooperationand broken-willed lessness" and "to transform assent to the also holds forthespectator. Torture oftheparty."22 Thisact,however, and principles war" the as thosewho orchestrated destabilizes knew, terrorism, "Dirty Argentina's it the to and makes maintain therefore easier for power by government population "a climate offearin whichsubversion would be impossible."23 menScarry creating the victim But also threatens to the world of torture tionsthattorture (35). collapses aboutreal reducetheworldofthepublic.People do notliketotalkorthink (unaesthetabout, icized, uneroticized) violence;hence, thereis less and less people can think that "the watch,read,and say.The equationestablished byScarry prisoner's steadily his swellingsense of territory" (36), also shrinking ground... wins forthetorturer to holds trueforthe innocentbystanders. They, too, make it possible fortorture into thatrealm of continueby givingup ground,by not daringto ventureforth in distant lands,maynotfeartheviolent knowledge.Whilewe, theaudience sitting intoour homes,we feargivingup our peace ofmind. Ifwe intrusion ofvictimizers are thattorturers is tiedto financial understoodthatthe practice of torture interest, to do whattheydo, and thatlack ofpublic but people who are trained notmonsters interest makes atrociouspoliticspossible, the public mighthave to do something is threatThe veryexistence of torture about it or else consideritself complicitous.24 it the It threatens the of in lives but different victims, ways. fundamentally ening, sense it undermines the distant of the immediate spectators' population, paralyzes we live our easy assumptionsabout human natureand the civilization well-being, in. it into a grotesquefiction. invertsit, transforms deconstructs Terrorism reality, show thatvictimized Accountsof terrorism populationswritetheirown dramas; these people musthave moved, theymustbe someplace,anyplaceexceptin that and assassinated.In the BloodWedding no-placein whichtheyare beingbrutalized into tertheatrical the traditional of plot flowsimperceptibly fragment Information, rorism,a "modern" drama. The fathertells his child a story,but the narration and abducted. us. Two menare attacked revisestheeventswe see before completely had lots bad were thefather But that'sall right, dark, Bolivian, guys, explains,they
shocksand withelectric almostwithout tortured, methodically, sadistically, sexually, exception, inin themosthumiliating and constant possibleway,notto discover beatings, near-drownings well as as to break them to had information few physically, spiritually just formation-very give--but werekilled";see thetorture torturers. Mostof thosewho survived and to givepleasureto their onthe National Commission the Straus, Nunca Mds:The Farrar, (NewYork: Disappeared of Report Argentine Giroux, 1986). 164,162. 'Peters,Torture, 23Nunca Mds,xvii. measuresto stabilize de Hoz's economic RocknotesthatMartinez 1516-1987, 24In Argentina: themilifrom wereinseparable offoreign investment" theaggressive pursuit "through Argentina war "The workers. and union labor leaders of the Army's specifically population, repression tary's from outside elicited de Hoz's program observers, and Martinez on subversion responses opposite In many thelatter. butgenerally oftheformer brutalities whodetested theextreme respects, praised see and inseparable" werecomplimentary thetwo policies however, (369). On publiccomplicity, 179-84. EdwardPeters, Torture,

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THEATER AND TERRORISM / 175 of children, theydeserve to be punished by the good guys. The unacceptable(the and terrorism not onlyacceptablebut necessary. becomes Torture create abduction) if it does not on even their own looking-glass concrete world, appear city maps. Old The tour this world. the no to or us through guide through maps longercorrespond one's thattraditional one's house demonstrates home, family, conceptsconcerning assault inflicted one's body, have collapsed under the systematic on them. The our world,to somehow of torture and terrorism theatricality temptsus to rethink within our oftheadmissable, or make room for acts canon these accept performative an scene ofinnocent thusproducing normative As another abduction shows, changes. a victims the Police of "terrorists" turns into extermination by magically righteous beforeour veryeyes. Labelingpeople "terrorists" allows themto be erased without a trace.And thePolicecongratulate that"justicealwayswins out" (111). themselves The flagrant of the scenes, however,warns us against acceptingthe theatricality theatrical or magicalsolutionsto politicalconflict, and cautionsus againstthinking of the non-visible who go spaces as non-spaces. What happens to the characters Whatdo magiciansdo withall thosebunnies?Actorsgo backstageto their offstage? end up in torture victims dressingrooms;bunniesgo back to their cages; abduction chambersand unmarkedgraves. The theatricality of terrorism exceeds the mechanicsof stagingatrociousacts. the this likea social transtour haunted house shows, functions Terrorism, through former. As the audience walks down the dark corridors, it becomes clearhow terrorism social fearsand inverts cultural manipulates symbols.In theaudience,stumin and the we down realize that terrorism dark,up stairs, bling plays withpotent of the the It on infantile darkness. the unknown, fantasies; images pit, capitalizes torturers fears of dismemberment and suffocation. The screams destruction, exploit resoundingthroughthe loud speakers emphasize that this kind of destabilizing violence works throughamplification; twentyvictimscan hold an entiresociety ofchilhostage.Phantomsloom overa cowering population.The hideous intrusion dren'ssongsand gamesintotheplayillustrates how terrorism pushes thepopulation to regressto those earlyareas of experience thatprove themostoverwhelming and thehardestto decode. The spectators do not understand whatis happening. simply One approachesas an adultand turns childincapableofaction. away as a frightened Cultural and comeout skewed.The innocent normsenter arecalledenemies.Theater becomes terror. Mothersare raped. And the transformation is real, not illusory. It and actuallychanges society.The generalpublic does in factbecome complicitous in the transformation. The victims are foundguilty; the torguilty by participating turers are acquitted.25Torture turnsbodies inside out by violence,but it also turns ourmoraland judicialsystems upside-down.This,thehouse shows,is an unnatural the play. Lightbecomes dark, the universe;the lightsgo on and offthroughout visible becomes invisible.Here, I disagree with AnthonyKubiak's assertionthat

PresidentMenem's recentdecision to pardon the criminalsof the "DirtyWar" is only 25Argentine the most currentexample of the inversion attested throughoutthe literatureon torture.Jacobo Timerman's testimonyof the tortureinflicted on him in Argentinain Prisoner a Name was Without discreditedby many reviewerswho defended the regime and accused Timermanof bringing"his

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whileanti-state has performative terrorism "Stateterrorism qualities, (byfarthemore virulent ofthetwoforms ofterrorism) relies on the non-theatrical in-visible typically and of clandestine bombtorture, operations, techniques disappearances, night-time that runs."26 Aside from out are visible, ing pointing "night-time bombings" highly itis important and making thevisible torealizethatdealingin disappearance invisible in that is also profoundly the theater can the audience believe those theatrical. Only and of torture who walk offstage have vanished into limbo. So the theatricality and the does not lie of world, terrorism, necessarily capable inverting fictionalizing in itsvisibility, in itspotential to recreate, to makethevisible butrather to transform, the real unreal. Perhaps the factthatwe know what is goingon and yet invisible, and resistant to cannotsee it makes the entireprocess more frightening, riveting, eradication.27 the population can be used to incapacitate effectiveness Given thatthe theater's how can Gambarohope to communicate and precludeitsconstructive participation, One mightask if and torture the atrociousrealityof terrorism throughtheater? in these and otherplays are not and terrorism Gambaro's depictionsof torture Does a variation of torture called "showingthe instruments." of a form themselves an alreadyterrorized audience?Does she want terrorize Gambarowant to further to inflict violence on her actors?Or, are we, the audience, the victimsthathave with the stumbledinto the wrongplay? Is she accusing us of being complicitous and their of conventional the invisibility placing By stripping spectators atrocity? themin the (Lacanian)lethalfieldof Other,or as (Sartrian) objectsofanother'sgaze them?28 is she notvictimizing wheredangerand deathare everywhere, in a situation

in Brazil: A Torture on himself" his own torture, own troubles, Torture, 160-161). (Peters, including York: Dassin ed. the trans. Archdiocese Sdo Books, Paulo, Joan Jaime (New Vintage Wright, Report of by be punished their families victims and/or thattorture 1986),documents askingthatthetorturers to "let bygones be bygones" to forget, werecalledvengeful; (xii). Peters theywere encouraged in itsPariscenter to convene International to allowAmnesty thatin 1973,UNESCO refused reports on sixty ofUNESCO's member-countries reflected on torture becauseAmnesty's unfavorably report torture (160). currently practicing Theatre 39 (1987), The Stagesof Terror," as History: Kubiak,"Disappearance Journal, 26Anthony 84. must enable thetheater an anti-Aristotelian insists ina 1982 interview, inversion) 27Gambaro, (with ". . . thedead arenumbers, tosee reality: haslostitscapacity thepublic tosee again,for theaudience to us.. . The aesthetic statistics ... we can readaboutthewarin Lebanonand itmeansnothing theemotional outoftheanesthetizing acthastowakeus up,we havetocomeround, misinformation, Teatro see Griselda and theideas thatare the verybasis of our society"; Gambaro, deformation, 31. Girol Books,1983), (Ottawa: see Jacques ofOther, ofselfin thefield a discussion of thedisappearance Lacan,TheFour 28For
trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Norton, 1981) and The Fundamental of Psycho-Analysis, Concepts trans. AnthonyWilden (Baltimore:The JohnsHopkins UniFunction ofLanguagein Psychoanalysis,

ofthe Sartre's recalls in Information situation Press,1968).Theaudience's example Jean-Paul versity tomyacts,itis myacts;and my sticks thekeyhole: individual "Myconsciousness through peering to be seen), a puremode of acts are commanded (thespectacle onlyby the ends to be attained in I hear sudden all of a But world in the footsteps thehall.Someoneis looking losingmyself ....
at me! . . . the person is presented to consciousness in so faras thepersonis an object fortheOther.

notin thatI am the as escaping ofmyself Thismeansthatall ofa suddenI am conscious myself,

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THEATER AND TERRORISM / 177 the theater, whichis alwaysinvolvedon theviolencethrough And, by representing some levelwiththebuyingand sellingofpleasure,is she not,inevitably, into falling thetrapofrendering violencepleasurable, The even theatrical perhaps pornographic? skewstheprocessofvictimization -the actress actby definition theTortured playing Girlin Gambaro'splay is thereof herfreewill;real torture victims are not. Doesn't thetheatrical add theelement ofconsent whichdifferentiates event,then,necessarily theatrical or even sexual sadomasochistic from torture? violence, violence, The dangersof representing and Gambaro,as Information violenceare manifold, is well aware of them.Clearly,she neverinflicts actual pain on the demonstrates, actorsor spectators; the actorsdo not have theirheads submergedin water; the Tortured Girlsits soakingwet near the tub-the idea is thatshe has just emerged fromthe submarino. Other actors"disappear" offstage rather than to theirdeaths. The audience members, in the stage directions, she specifies are neverinvolvedin theactionagainsttheir will. This is theater, not torture. We could notwithstand the actionifit were torture. would violence not the elucidate Simplyreproducing help mechanismof social manipulation thatGambaroshows up through thismost mawork.The otherquestionsare moredifficult to answer.Gambaro'sethical nipulative concernwiththerepresentation of violencediffers, to a degree,from thatvoiced by the horrors of the who topreserve Adorno,orbyplaywrights Holocaust, depicting try theunaestheticized an in of event the The of Gambaro was memory past. Information in a that was The to survive living society becoming terrifying. onlyway increasingly in a criminalized society,she felt,was to challengeit, to challengeits myths,its its monsters.Faced with a life-threatening Gambaro simply distortions, situation, feltshe had no choice but to respond to it. I would argue thather depictionsof do notreproduce violencebut demystify but it;theyare not life-threatening atrocity The matter is and like the can we, Guide, potentially life-saving. subject unpleasant, into traditional realms complainabout the unsavoryscripts.Gambaro'sintrusions ofpleasureare as unwelcomeas themandatory reviewofemergency on procedures our pleasure cruise,as the Guide jokes: "Come in," he says to the group, "watch from yourstep. All that'smissingis a 'fastenyourseatbeltsand refrain smoking'" with the waves of indiscriminate violencewashingover Argentina, (95). However, as well as other partsoftheworld,Gambarowarnsthatwe mustlearnto see violence in its manyguises, we mustrecognizeour role and therole ofpeople "just likeus" in maintaining it. She is not demanding"information" from us but offering it: "information for As R. I. Moorepointsout in his preface to EdwardPeters's foreigners." Torture, "ignorancehas many forms,and all of them are dangerous" (vii). This "information" alike. empowersthe audience, local and foreign The emphasisin Information, is not on the violentacts themselves, but moreover, on the audience's role as spectators the the on act of violence, watching watching itself. Thereare manyways ofwatching, some empowering, some disempowering,

foundationof my own nothingnessbut in that I have my foundationoutside of myself.I am for trans. myselfonly as I am a pure referenceto the Other"; Jean Paul Sartre,Beingand Nothingness, Hazel E. Barnes (New York: WashingtonSquare Press, 1969).

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178 / DianaTaylor
some associatedwithwisdom (clairvoyance), some withperversity and criminality be like the To Michel can Foucault, (voyeurism). watching empowering; panopticon, surveillance functions "ceaselessly"and "the gaze is alerteverywhere."29Watching is watching. toolofthetotalitarian states: is a powerful Gambaro, however, BigBrother in that itself can somehow fiction the watching empowerthe challenges dangerous Girlthat the the tortured Guard reassures or control violence. Although spectator end before the of the she is safe,theaudiencewillsee theGirl'scorpseturn up play. avert violence can miraculously Themyth that thepublic,localas wellas international, itrunsdeep. The word "watch"in groupsdedicatedto endingpolitical by watching and Klanwatch indicatesthe quasi-magical and racial violence like Americas Watch in and thatwatching, The we attribute to shows, however, play watching. power and Americas never saved Watch, International, Klanwatch, anyone. Amnesty by itself, in a different scene Another Girl not watch. similar do young organizations simply is singingsweetlywhen a man (supposedlyan audience member)walks up to her are her in front of the whole group (106). Four hospitalattendants and suffocates called to the scene: theyzip theGirl'sbody intoa plasticshroudand away theygo. when it forms Did the audience save her?Watching, part potentially empowering to the specwhen reduced be can a broader of network, extremely disempowering tator'spassive "just watching." of torture of violence?Is it a form a form itself Is watching (knownin Argentina or we on as someone love is destroyed look in which we must as "family torture") humiliated beforeour eyes? Or is watchingthe "unauthorized"or even criminal fallson a prisoner, The Guide's flashlight accidentally scopophiliaof voyeurism?30 and terrified. He covershis his raises in a head, corner, "who surprised cowering are sex withhis hands" (71). The spectators, customers, suddenlycastin the paying to a restricted for tickets roleofpeepingToms.Worsestill, playwe might havingpaid thetwo majorselling-points and violence,indisputably thenudity have anticipated "we want to see in Ways statesit simply theater. ofcommercial John ofSeeing: Berger we a of we catch the othernaked."31 Here, however, glimpse things do notwant to Faced in a cage, a murder. and stuffed a man a naked a under see, body gagged tarp, into are shocked we version ofwhatwe werepaying withthistwisted for, considering, we were wereand whatwe thought whatourexpectations thefirst time, perhapsfor do we for our After in theater? the we What are tickets, merely paying doing buying. We are on dangerous Arewe perverted? to getourmoney'sworth? feelan obligation ground. as it is in the theater The desireto see is nowhereso prominent (or cinema). We writes in The hear. Christian to to the theater to Metz, see, Imaginary Signifier, go and theperceptual thatcinema"is onlypossiblethrough hearing passions." Seeing othersexual drivesin that different from but subliminal, are sexual drives,powerful
and Punish:The Birth 29Michel Foucault, Discipline of thePrison,trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Random House, 1979), 195. and theCinema, trans.Ben Brewster 30Christian Metz, TheImaginary (BloomPsychoanalysis Signifier: Press, 1977), 63. ington:Indiana University ofSeeing(New York: Penguin, 1977), 58. Emphasis is Berger's. 31 JohnBerger,Ways

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AND TERRORISM / 179 THEATER of lackor throughdistanceand absence. Metz notes the importance theyfunction in fuelingthis eroticdesire: perceptualdrives"always remainmore or less absence unsatisfied. . . the lack is what it wishes to fill,and at the same timewhat it is Barthesalso links always carefulto leave gaping,in orderto surviveas desire."32 an eroticphotograph:"The erotic desire to absence and distancewhen describing does notmakethesexualorgansintoa central [unlikethepornographic] photograph at all; ittakesthespectator it well show them outsidetheframe, not object; mayvery and it is therethatI animatethispictureand thatit animatesme--as if the image launched desire beyond what it permitsus to see."33Lack, absence, distance, beyond .... of scopic pleasure, nor forthe more Gambarodoes not allow forthe distancing vital distancing of voyeuristic as Metz If, Freud) argues, "vo(following pleasure. the in this like sadism (here the object yeurism, respect,always keeps apart object abolishes thesource ofthedrive(theeye)," Gambaroon thecontrary looked at) from thatdistanceby havingus stumbleon what we do not want to see. We are in the same room. This naked body does not, as in cinema, exist in the realm of the theater that pure celluloid;itis materially present.And unliketraditional imaginary, within stillmaintains thesame four distanceeven as theactorsand audience coexist of theaudience actually knocksinto,or stumbles walls, here the member against,a thateroticizesor aestheticizes and violence naked body. Unlike theater nudity by as muchas itreveals,Gambaro'stheater simultaneously exposesviolence "covering" and drawsus intoit. The audience sees theutterly raw nakednessofanother human the the that without erotic or desire distance, love, being accompanying sympathy, rendersthe sighttolerableor titillating. calls attention to the Gambaro,moreover, factthatthose perceptualdesires or "passions" have alreadybeen socialized and in ways we do not realize. Theorieslinking desireto a visual lack failto politicized in front accountforwhat we feelstanding of the half-open doors leadingto torture to look a reluctance chambers.Is the "beyond"here a visual lure?Is our reluctance to satisfy our desire,a reluctance to see lestwe satiate(terminate) desireitself? Is it a thehorror real absence, case of political that of witnessing not,rather, absenting, about it. is, disappearance?If we actuallysaw it, we mighthave to do something The lack,then,is ofa fundamentally different naturewhenwe movedto thephysical and political arenaofabductions and atrocity. Thereis nothing safe,erotic, innocent, or gratifying aboutthisvisionthat inverts traditional theatrical perception, producing thattraps pain,perhapseven shame,butprecluding pleasure.Intolerable sight, sight bothseen and seer,capturesboththerevolting all sightand theviewer'srevulsion, in the same frame. The same pointalso holds forthe audience's feelings of transgression. Creeping the dark into the actlikeintrusive rooms, spectators children, through halls,peeping on the primalscene. Originally, however,the prohibition stumbling againsttransmuchin themanneroftaboos,was conceivedbypopulationsas protecting gression,
58-59. Metz, Imaginary Signifier, on Photography, trans.RichardHoward (New York: Hill 33Roland Barthes,CameraLucida:Reflections and Wang, 1981), 59.
32

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180 / DianaTaylor
and ritualsoriginally mediatedbetween the Theatrical humanity. representations human and the divine, shieldinghumans fromthe awful (in the sense of holy). diverseas Euripides' TheBacchae and pre-Columbian ritual Examplesas culturally thatwhichexceedshumancomprehenofseeing stressthe dangerof transgression, likeZeus in all his splendor, sion. The powerofthesuperhuman, threatens to blind and destroy the human. the notion of transgression and challengesits Gambaro,however,demystifies whatis behindthosedoorsand whydo we nothave legitimate access to it? politics: Fears of transgression obfuscatethe mechanicsof power ratherthan protectthe Whether thesanctum ofhumanity. sanctorum is thepre-Hispanic sensibilities cue,the the Pentagon,or Oz, the parentalbedroom,the maskingsocietiesof West Africa, theproduction and reproduction ofpower:hencethemasks, publicis excludedfrom the hideous sculptures, the admonitions. The politicsof the awesome have given has way to the politicsof the awful:politicalsecrecyreplacestaboo; the off-scene likeancient becometheobscene;terrorism, us and with us compels gargoyles, repels The "hidden" natureof torture, and otherscenes of atrocity its horror. abductions, themby appealingto ways ofseeing us away from frighten seeingand recognizing we consciously or unconsciously associatewithbadseeing,perversion, voyeurism, and transgression. We are socializedto avertour eyes from sexuallychargedsights. violence temptsus to look Bindingthe sexuallychargedimage with annihilating want feel like children at We not to do peeping keyholes,like voyeurs,like away. Yet the withpeeping want to feel identification We do not complicitous. perverts. children and perverts have no place in the is a misleading one; althoughspectators arena. There,thepublicgives up bedroom,the same does nothold forthepolitical itsplace and itsright at itsperil:torturers can getaway withmurder. to participation In orderto be empoweredby seeing, to be able to look back at the monstrous into lifelessstones, we must see beyond the theatrical gargoyleswithoutturning frameand decode the fictions about ourselvesas about violence,about torturers, in this "patheticdrama." Gambarodevelops a audience, about the role of theater maone thatprovokesaudiences to resentand rejecttheatrical dangeroustheater, and that the frames theatrical that breaks of tradition one shocks disrupts, nipulation, in orderto make theinvisible to thelimits of visibleonce again. She pushes theater like the theater Almost so some and, guerrilla might argue,beyond. representation "raids" theatrical trapopular in Latin Americaduringthe early1970s,Information a never witness a Lorca. But a little touch of ditions: complete spectators Shakespeare, scene and events fail to link up in any coherentor causal way. By introducing scenes withacts ofcriminal of theatrical violence,Gambaroindicatesthe fragments the arena in America is of intenseand dangerous theater Latin which to degree Oththe lies burst As Desdemona conflict. dead, onstageto arrest police ideological morethanan ironic to accepttheatrical ello. Thisis morethanthefailure convention, The policing oftheater, thevictims. reminder thatonlyin dramado thepoliceprotect illustrates of the theater and the harassment the censorship of scripts, practitioners on the other Radical as subversive. theater that authorities hand, practitioners, regard and cultural colonialism. as one more stage forcontinuing see theater oppression Desdemona will continueto die on LatinAmerican stagesand Emiliawill continue

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THEATER AND TERRORISM / 181 to defendthenoble man's right to murder his wife.Forothers,theater is (or should entertainment. be) merely In closing,I would like to comment in the play, on the broadesttemporal frame the catacombs.They provide one more perspectivefromwhich to recognizenot thatthe historical framehighlights, but also the violent merelythe violentreality that itkeeps out. The catacombs, as thesiteofhistorical sacrifice, reality scapegoating, and death, frameongoingpersecution.Enshrinedas historical evidence of nobler of those martyrs becomes almost times,the violence associated with annihilation invisible.By dwellingon theheroismof thesedeaths,the Guide and spectators can thehorrors overlook oftheir context. thatnow themilitary Theycan ignoretheirony and Argentine, are in rulers,who pride themselveson being Christian, Western, So whilethecatacombs to a historical chargeofthepersecutions. providea reference in anothersense the observance past in whichdeath was perceivedas meaningful, ofthatpastis ahistorical, a redherring, attention from theatrocious diverting present. in thatit allows forissues to be keptartifically is problematic Framing separate, and Gambarocombats itspropensity for distortion byhavingtheaudienceand actors the house. Information move, havingthe sounds and screamsresound throughout in thatby constantly is metapolitical theater aesthetic forms to the limits it pushing enables us to carry thatinquiry overintopolitics.One examplemustsuffice. Robert Skloot'sintroduction to his anthology TheTheatre Holocaust focuseson some of ofthe the issues I have raised here. He asks: "How could thesehorrifying eventsoccurin one of the mostcivilizedand advanced nationsof the world?Whydid mostof the freeworld remainaloof to the plightof the Jewsand otherpersecutedminorities. how would we have behaved?"34 ... Had we been involvedin theeventsofthistime, The point,Information makesclear,is thatthesequestionsare not hypothetical. This in no way suggeststhattheterrorism holdingLatinAmerica hostagetodaycompares withoris "like"theHolocaust,although somescholars maintain that "whathappened in Argentina in theyearsthatfollowed1976was probably closerto what happened in Germany after 1933thananything else in theWestern worldduringthepast four The Holocaustwas a unique historical event.It ended, but atrocity and decades."35 fascismlive on; the tacticsof terror, the bureaucratic and systematic extermination ofcountlessvictims continues chambers. todayin camps and torture Byjuxtaposing thecatacombs withtraditionally theatrical withterrorist scenes,withtorture, attacks, Gambaro forcesus to relinquishour comforting about our violence, assumptions claims to deniability, innocenceand quietism,and insteadurgesus to understand whatprompts itand how we participate, either as voyeurs, as investors, as bystandsubmitsthe audience to its own Milgram ers, or as victims.In a way, Information Willitsmembers continueto followtheGuide and passivelyparticipate experiment. in the situation? Will we ask forour moneyback or walk out of the show? As the

"Robert Skloot, The Theatre of theHolocaust:Four Plays (Madison: Universityof Wisconsin Press, 1982), 10. and theMothersof the Plaza (New York: St. 35John Simpson and Jana Bennett, The Disappeared Martin's Press, 1985), 9.

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roomto roomor turnthe pages of the newspaperfor"informove from spectators theplay thequestionis beinganswered.The responseis nothypothetical; mation," Whether we will not allow us to splitoff.We are involved,we are the spectators. the or our information from those half-closed doors, glean newspapers, peep through and end it?If not, as the Guide says, thisis our show. Can we stop just watching we might as well enjoyit: we're payingforit.

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