Personal information

Surname: Cossa
First name: Roberto
Other versions of the name: Tito
Born: 30 November 1934, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Biography

Roberto Cossa began his work in the theatre as an actor before turning to writing plays.  His first play, Nuestra fin de semana, was staged in 1964.  Cossa has also worked as a journalist and was instrumental in the theatre movement of resistance, Teatro Abierto (Open Theatre), which challenged the climate of repression during the period of the military junta in Argentina between 1976 and 1983.  He continues to define himself as a dramatist who is a passionate advocate of human rights.

Themes

Cossa explores the fundamental middle-class preoccupations for a Porteño family of the time: work and family.  He examines the ideology which places great value on the possession of material wealth, such as owning modern appliances, as misguided symbols of personal fulfilment.  Whereas the precursor to Cossa’s theatre, the grotesco criollo, critiques liberal government policies, poverty and deprivation and its associated social problems, Cossa places the responsibility for moral and spiritual decay firmly within the family of Italian immigrant origins.

Style

The indisputable precursor to Cossa’s theatre is that of the grotesco criollo.  There are several recognisable tropes which are echoed and expanded upon, most significantly the fusion of the grotesque with the comic.  Other elements of Cossa’s theatre include the deformation of language and a grotesque physicality which is principally embodied by the character of the grandmother in La nona.

Plays in the database

• La nona (c.1977) / La nona

Other works

• Cossa, Roberto. 1964. Nuestro fin de semana (Our Weekend) (in Spanish)

• Cossa, Roberto. 1966. Los días de Julián Bisbal (Julián Bisbal’s Days) (in Spanish)

• Cossa, Roberto. 1966. La ñata contra el libro (Nose in a book) (in Spanish)

• Cossa, Roberto. 1970. El avión negro (Black Plane) (in Spanish)

• Cossa, Roberto. 1979. No hay que llorar ( No need to Cry) (in Spanish)

• Cossa, Roberto. 1997 Los años difíciles (The Difficult Years) (in Spanish)

Entry written by Gwendolen Mackeith. Last updated on 15 June 2012.

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