Personal information

Surname: Navajas
First name: Esteban
Other versions of the name: Navajas Cortés
Born: 1948, Bogotá, Colombia

Biography

Esteban Navajas Cortés is closely linked with the theatre school and company, Teatro Libre de Bogotá, in the capacity of both an actor and a dramatist.  This group, led by Jairo Aníbal Niño, developed the script for his first play, La agonía del difunto, as well as its first production.

As well as being a playwright, Navajas is also an anthropologist.

Themes

Navajas is concerned with the history and social injustices of his native Colombia.  These concerns characterise his theatre and create a distinctly political dimension to his work.

Style

Navajas’s theatre is informed by a realist tradition which makes keen historical and social observations.  However, the dramatic scenarios which Navajas creates are farcical and absurd in nature.

Plays in the database

• La agonía del difunto (c.1976) / A Dead Man's Dying

Other works

• Navajas, Esteban. 1982. Canto triste a una sombre de boxeo (A Sad Song to Shadow Boxing) (in Spanish)

Useful reading and websites

• Plata, Jorge. 1992. ‘Un macabro memorial de agravios’. In Antología del teatro colombiano contemporáneo. Madrid, Fondo de Cultura Económica (in Spanish)

Entry written by Gwendolen Mackeith. Last updated on 3 October 2011.

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