Personal information

Surname: Griffero
First name: Ramón
Other versions of the name: Griffero Sánchez
Born: 1953, Santiago, Chile

Biography

Ramón Griffero was born in Santiago in 1953.  He is a director, actor and playwright.  Griffero was politically active in the early 1970s and in 1973 went into exile in London where he studied social sciences at the University of Essex.  He returned to Chile in 1982 after nine years in exile when he formed the company, Teatro Fin de Siglo.  His theatre work resisted the military dictatorship during the 80s, until Chile became democratic in 1990 and Griffero continues to practice engaged theatre to date.   He has held the post of director at La Escuela de Teatro de la Universidad Arcis since 2001.

Themes

Griffero’s theatre investigates political oppression, marginality, humiliation and violence.   In Cinema Utopia the overriding theme is one of exile which is  imposed as a consequence of dictatorship.

Style

In Griffero’s theatre, the stage itself intervenes in the narrative as an active agent in the drama.  In the Chilean context, this technique is attributed to Griffero and a theatre practice known as the ‘dramaturgy of space’. For example, the narrative in the film shown in the cinema setting of Cinema Utopia transgresses the boundary of the screen and intervenes in the lives of the characters in the stalls.  Griffero exploits a ‘plastic’ notion of character, and cinematic motifs recur in his work.

Plays in the database

• Cinema utoppia (c.1985) / Cinema Utopia

Useful reading and websites

• Boyle, Catherine M. 1992. Chilean Theater, 1973 – 1985: Marginality, Power, Selfhood. Rutherford, NJ, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

• Salinas, Maria Teresa. 1986. ‘Griffero, una nueva perspectiva: El teatro de imágenes’, Literatura Chilena: Creación y crítica, 10.2-3, 27-30 (in Spanish)

Entry written by Gwendolen Mackeith. Last updated on 31 May 2012.

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