Memory, Transitional Justice, and Theatre in Postdictatorship Argentina by Noe Montez (review)

The brutally violent and oppressive military dictatorship that took place in Argentina from 1976 to 1983 permanently changed the country. Thousands of Argentines were tortured and disappeared, others fled into exile, and still others lived in constant fear. Anyone considered to be a potential revolutionary (a capacious group that included artists, activists, and academics) was at risk; yet, as Toni Morrison has reminded us, times of threat and darkness are precisely when artists "go to work" (2015), and the years during and following Argentina's dictatorship were prolific years of brave and profound theatrical exploration of the relationship between life, art, and politics. Unsurprisingly, Argentine theatre and performance during and immediately following the dictatorship was subsequently followed by a rich and vast body of scholarship, including work by Diana Taylor (1997), Jean Graham-Jones (2000), and Ana Elena Puga (2008). Less common, however, is the study of the prolific, vibrant theatre of the post-transition, postdictatorship years (defined here as the 1990s onward).

Memory, Transitional Justice, and Theatre in Postdictatorship Argentina, by Noe Montez, seeks to fill this gap through close analysis of the ways in which post-1990s theatre reflected the memory narratives and transitional justice practices of the tumultuous times. In so doing, Montez introduces a range of contemporary artists and plays that, until now, have gone largely understudied, especially in transnational and English-language theatre and performance scholarship. The author takes pains to situate the theatrical works under analysis within a broader overview of the politics of the times, and this historical introduction will undoubtedly be quite useful to readers who are unfamiliar with this period in Argentine history. Having noted this, the book's most valuable contribution to the field of Latin American theatre and performance arguably lies in its strong focus on the theatrical productions themselves, including choices in directing, design, and, of course, performance. Born of the author's background both as a theatre historian and as a director and dramaturg, this methodological approach provides a strong grounding for and brings great richness to the close investigation of a diverse array of theatrical productions. Including just under a dozen images and a relatively short index and bibliography, the book's focus on detailed, politically situated theatrical analysis is consistent from start to finish.

Across the arc of the book, a dozen productions are directly examined, with references to numerous others integrated throughout. Chapter 1, "Resisting the Menem Administration's Narratives of Reconciliation and Forgetting," focuses on four plays that challenge governmental discourses of forgetting and impunity and historiographical narratives of the dictatorial past. Chapter 2, "Teatroxlaidentidad: The Right to Memory and Identity," investigates a Buenos Aires theatre festival's partnership with the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and their collective efforts to support emerging artists who are developing politically oriented theatrical work. Chapter 3, "Reparation, Commemoration, and Memory Construction in the Postdictatorship Generation," looks at a series of theatrical works staged during the respective Néstor and Cristina Kirchner administrations. Lastly, chapter 4, "Performing Public Memorialization of the Malvinas War," highlights several productions that were staged alongside national commemorations of the Malvinas War's 30th anniversary.

Over the course of the book, the author demonstrates how "the theatre became a site where artists and spectators could explore the precariousness of state-sanctioned memory politics and consider the ways that commemorative discourses might be manipulated to resist policies of impunity and forgetting" (21). For example, in chapter 1, the author explores a selection of plays created by a generation of artists who were often called teatro joven, or "young theatre," and argues that these plays demonstrate "complex views of ongoing strategies for constructing memory narratives in ways that are oftentimes ambiguous and contradictory" and ultimately require "individual viewers to take responsibility for understanding the ways that remembering is ultimately a public and collective act" (24). Furthermore, Montez argues that it is precisely by emphasizing the unreliability of memory...