Political theatre against the utopia: Juan Mayorga’s Famélica

Abstract

According to César de Vicente Hernando, contemporary political theater is an investigation into power structures, proceeding through their disarticulation and critique in order to mobilize the audience to develop its own ideological reflection. Current political theater is no longer pamphlet-like; the type of commitment to the audience and its time is shaped through the dialogue it establishes with them. The new political dramaturgy does not aim to convince the audience but to question their convictions, showing them the dominant structures and the fictions of power to transform them into critics of society.

In the following study, we will apply this idea of the new political theater through the play Famélica by Juan Mayorga, premiered in 2015. It is a dramatic text that explores social dissent, confronting ideological positions to dissolve consensuses and compel each spectator to dismantle their own certainties. The methodology for analyzing Mayorga’s work will be developed through the disciplines of theater studies and philosophy.