“Ladies and gentlemen: Admission is free today, for

adults. If you’ve already entered, you can’t repent. The cost is already incurred. Better to enjoy yourself. No one under eighteen will be admitted. Or

under thirty-five or over thirty-six. Everyone else can attend with no problem. No obscenity

or strong words. The play speaks to our way of life: Argentine, Western, and

Christian. We are in 1971. I ask that you stay together and

remain silent. Careful on the stairs.”

The Milgram Experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L-hKsjGP1M&feature=related

Would you Volunteer?

“Information for Foreigners”by Griselda Gambaro

Hope Paiva, Natasha Turner, Laura Trecartin

Introducing Griselda Gambaro….• Born in Buenos Aires July 28,

1928, currently 79• She’s a playwright and novelist• Her works highlight the issues

Argentina was facing from the 1960s-1980s

• She was exiled from Argentina from 1976-1980, she lived in Spain and France during this time

• The main themes in Gambaro’s plays are passivity and not taking personal responsibility for events

• One of the most distinguished writer’s of contemporary Argentina

Her Writings Contain….• 1963 The Walls (play)• 1965 The Blunder (play)• 1965 The Siamese Twins (play)• 1967 The Camp (play)• These plays concern the

progressive deterioration of the fabric of society

• 1972 Saying Yes (play)• 1972 Strip (play)• 1973 Information for

Foreigners (depicts a world totally slipped from its moorings in which murder, torture and execution seem part of the horizon of everyday life

• 1976 The Name (play)

• 1972 Nothing To Do With Another Story (novel)

• 1976 To Earn One’s Death (novel, banned in Argentina, Gambaro left Argentina to Spain and France 1977)

• 1979 God Does Not Want Us To Be Happy (novel, Gambaro returned to Argentina after this novel)

• 1980 Royal Gambit (play)• 1981 Bitter Blood (play)• 1983 From the Rising Sun

(play)• 1984 Impenetrable (novel)• 1986 Antigona Furiosa (play)

“Information for Foreigners”• Written 1973• The play is 20 scenes and is supposed to take place in a

large house. • Play shows state of terror, blends onstage and backstage

action to fully expose workings of a state of terror• She incorporates many cultural references into her play to

strengthen it. • Gambaro uses the participatory aspect of theatre to

illustrate her point of people not taking responsibility for their actions and to show how terror regimes use the theatre of terror so that people dissociate the regimes actions with reality

Some Quotes…• “The play speaks to our way of life: Argentine, Western, and Christian. We are in 1971. I ask

that you stay together and remain silent.”

• “Theatre imitates life/If you don’t clap/ It means that life is rotten to the core/ And we may as well just head for the door. / Who once said: Here are the

ken/ of men and women/ here are the bounds?”

• These two quotes show how Gambaro is making the audience question their blind submission to authority.

Where do her plays take place?-The political repression of the 1960s in Argentina gave way to state terrorism in the 1970s - especially the “Dirty War” (1976-1983)-in which military government systematically imprisoned and/or murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians, “the disappeared”

The Dirty War• 1976 - 1983 (7 years)• Argentine government

against suspected dissidents and subversives

• innocent people, "disappeared" in the middle of the night

• tortured and eventually killed

• death of the controversial President Juan Peron in 1974, his wife & vice president, Isabel Peron, assumed power

• This military junta maintained its grip on power by cracking down on anybody whom they believed was challenging their authority

• Causalities between 10000-30000

• War with England brought this regime to an end

• Ended December 10, 1983• Raul Alfonsin's civilian

government took power

A former illegal detention center in the headquarters of the provincial police

of Santa Fe, now a memorial

Memorial to the Dirty War in a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Poster by the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo NGO with photos of the disappeared

Aspect of the Play… Environmental Theater

• Commonly used in the late 1960s to describe performances that encompass the whole theatre environment making no distinctions between the playing area and the audience.

• The environment for this piece is: an old house or warehouse, with multiple rooms, a staircase and various forms of lighting

• Plot: the audience is split, and then led by a personal tour-

guide. Creating confusion during overlaps and confined space.- In each room a different plot unfolds- Each story line is based on news paper clips taken from Argentinean society in 1971.

Why did she write this play?• Gambaro wanted to make those

outside of the country’s walls aware of what was going on within.

• The script is filled with cultural codes, defined in the footnotes, due to censorship during this time period

• She has described the piece as “a guided tour at the real pace of repression and indignity.”

- The play is written during an “era of government-sponsored terrorism”. Which attacked those who were involved in actions that were deemed subversive, but also were on the grounds of kidnapping, torture and death.

Discussion Questions

When witnessing a crime if a bystander does nothing, does that make them guilty?

Do you believe making the audience participate, and think, adds to a play or takes away from it?

Would you be uncomfortable seeing a play dealing with uncomfortable issues, such a suicide, masturbation, torture and abduction? Does this make you aware of issues or would you rather not watch it?

Rebecca Graper, Ryan MacDonald, Owen Hurst

The What? Yes Men? Huh?• Two prominent members of the Yes Men

are Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos.• Servin is a respected author of “experimental

fiction”, while Vamos is a professor of media arts at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York

• use a number of aliases while practicing “identity correction”

• the Yes Men is comprised of a group of anonymous individuals worldwide

What do they do?• Practice what they call Identity

Correction. • done by imitating executives of

powerful organizations, “who put profits ahead of everything else.”

• often disguise themselves executives at conferences, and propose ridiculous ideas.

EXAMPLES• in the Exxon Mobile case, they

proposed that human corpses are used to generate oil

• at the WTO they have suggested slavery and recycling human feces in order to solve world hunger.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkTG6sGX-Ic

How Do They Do It?

• World Trade Organization• GWBush.com• DOW Chemicals

Where do they cause this mayhem?

• on TV• through comic strips• on websites• at conferences

• Watson Business School in Philadelphia

• New Orleans• Florida• Cleveland• Chicago• Sydney, Australia• State University of New

York • Finland

When the Exxon Hoax took place?

• Thursday, June 28, 2007 • at Canada’s largest oil

conference • at Stampede Park in

Calgary Alberta• http://www.youtube.co

m/watch?v=WkLzK13rI-Y&feature=related

Why do they do this?

• Expose the truth • Culture Jam• Bring attention to corporate injustices

Youtube Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK9Cs_UcTEE&feature=related

Discussion Questions

• Do you think these forms of protest are acceptable?

• Do you believe the Yes Men are disrespectful and should stop their “Identity Crisis”?

• Do you think these forms of protest make a difference over regular forms of protests?

Ladies and gentleman, what are you waiting for? The show is over. If you clap enthusiastically in all good haste your hands won’t go to

waste.  

Theater imitates lifeIf you don’t clap

It means that life is rotten to the coreAnd we may as well just head for the door.

 Who once said: here the ken

Of men and womenHere the bounds

 Who once said: here the ken

Of men and womenHere the bounds