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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#

M e$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# 6uch an atte'pt see's, to say the least, absurd4 the

1 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#

ose Celli, !aris, 5alli'ard, 009, pp# 9D- 9 #

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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)#

*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 intouestion 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 .

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;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 ( iet sche &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, icardo 2Oa has &orked in ;osnia,

ubn