Mapuche night

Night, dance music, eroticism and alcohol. Two couples in an apartment in the upper neighborhood listen to the sexual story that the owner of the house had at the age of 16 with a Mapuche worker from her father's field. A 19-year-old boy who was brought into his room without clothes as a joke, awakening desire, the only possible meeting point between them. That story that becomes heated, violent and confusing until time and space is blurred is Mapuche Night, a work written and directed by Marcelo Leonart.

Nona Fernández plays María Trinidad and Pablo Schwarz plays Juan Ignacio, her husband and cousin. Daniel Alcaíno and Roxana Naranjo play the visitors who have not been invited, although at first no one seems to realize it. Only when his story begins to sound threatening do the owners of the house wonder who they are and what they and the other two strangers who suddenly arrive, played by Caro Quito and Felipe Zepeda, are doing there.

Dream and reality, sex and violence mix in this premiere about the Mapuche conflict. A "very black" comedy, as Leonart says, "that leads to something else. We don't know what. The laugh we like is a sharp laugh. Sometimes violent, sometimes sad. I don't know what that's called."

Leonart wrote the text to rebel against the media that publishes the death of a Mapuche community member on the inside pages, but puts the tractor attacks on the front page. Its objective was to investigate the violence of the invasion. "We are invaders. It's a burden. And invaders are repelled. I would do that if they invaded my house."

The work makes a parallel between the occupation of Araucanía, the Indian wars in the United States and the present Mapuche conflict. “The idea is to make a play literally hot, without overlooking tricky things like the fire that killed the Luchsingers,” says the playwright and director.

Mapuche Night is the new work of the company La Pieza Oscura, formed by Marcelo Leonart and Nona Fernández, with which they have premiered El Taller (2012) and Liceo de Niñas (2015). 

Company: The dark piece | Direction and dramaturgy: Marcelo Leonart | Cast: Daniel Alcaíno, Nona Fernández, Roxana Naranjo, Pablo Schwarz, Caro Quito, Felipe Zepeda | Sound design: Miguel Miranda | Lighting design: Andrés Poirot | Set design: Catalina Devia | Production: Francisca Babul

THIS WORK IS PRESENTED AT GAM IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE XXVI EDITION OF THE SANTIAGO A MIL FESTIVAL 2019 

Previous seasons

The work premiered at GAM on September 30, 2017.