South Central Review

Abstract:

Santiago Sanguinetti’s plays from the Trilogía de la Revolución (Argumento contra la existenicia de la vida inteligente en el Cono Sur, Vol. 1, Sobre la teoría del eterno retorno aplicada a la revolución en el Caribe, Vol. 2, and Breve apología del caos por exceso de testosterona en las calles de Manhattan, Vol. 3), written between 2012–2014 and published in 2015 by Uruguayan press Estuario Editoral, represent a pivotal moment in Sanguinetti’s career when he begins to garner serious attention as a rising star. In all three examples, we see revolution paradoxically as both action and inaction. Sanguinetti’s trilogy and later addition of Bakunin sauna (2018) provide humorous approaches to understanding the failures of revolutionary ideals of the 1960s/70s in Latin America. If, as the characters in all four plays make evident, “[e]so no es revolución [(t)hat’s not revolution]” Sanguinetti invites his audiences to think about what could be revolution in the future through complex re-engagement with historical moments and theoretical frameworks on stage.