Theatre
The Camp
El campo
Griselda Gambaro · 1967
Synopsis
Martín, a young accountant, has just been hired by a company that the play does not name; the French national theatre centre speaks of a so-called farm run by Franco. The boss wears a uniform and showers Martín with attentions; Emma, a pianist who seems to have come out of a camp, is to give a concert. Martín no longer knows where he is, and the farm increasingly resembles a concentration camp.
Context
Written after the coup d'état of 1966, the play was first staged in Buenos Aires in 1967; a French dictionary of dramatic writing dates it to 1968. The name of the boss at first recalled Francisco Franco. Its revival at the Instituto Di Tella in 1975 launched the author's international career, followed by London in 1981 and New York in 1983. William Oliver translated it into English in 1971. It is linked to the criollo grotesque rather than to the theatre of the absurd.
Who it is for
A short play in Spanish, polished on the surface, which builds anguish without ever naming what it shows.
Prizes and reception
Revived in London and New York after its success of 1975; translated into four languages.
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