A work is built from testimonies and archives of people living with HIV and their intimate circles. From a critical and dissident perspective, the show contrasts the local story with the narrative of the mass media and activates desire, sexuality and contagion as a practice of community memory.
The work seeks to provide an artistic response to the historical violence that HIV-positive people have experienced, who have been singled out, pathologized and excluded, having also carried the weight of a narrative built from fear, prejudice and misinformation.
Through a performance proposal that interweaves archive, memory, performance and documentary theater, the La Comuna Collective makes visible the voices, stories and bodies that have been silenced by stigma.
"The project arises as an extension of our staging El Ritmo de la Noche, created from testimonies and archives of LGBTIQ+ people who survived the dictatorship. In the interviews carried out for this project, although HIV/AIDS appeared in the stories as a symptom of the devastating pandemic that affected our community during the 80s, its presence was intermittent and, in many moments, diffuse," says Diego Agurto, co-director and playwright.
The staging is transdisciplinary, where testimonies, archival materials, preventive campaigns and quotes from pop icons intersect, articulated through the language of late-night television programs from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. The work deploys monologues, choreographic sequences, quotes from the video clip and parody operations on media imaginaries of HIV, from the desire, humor, tension and contradiction of the virus in Chile.
"It is not about representing HIV from an external perspective, but about embodying its experiences from within, from the affects, networks of resistance, tenderness and accumulated rage. The body, as the central material of theater, is here also a living archive and political territory," say the creators.
The performing arts collective La Comuna emerged in 2009, founded by a group of graduates from the Theater School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, united by the desire to create an identity-based, performative theater committed to themes of gender, memory and sexuality.
"As a collective, it is urgent to reflect today on the memories of HIV/AIDS, from our active commitment to human rights, rights that in our country today are being questioned, weakened and relativized in the public debate. Added to this is an advance in hate speech against sexual diversity, putting at risk not only our lives, but also basic rights, such as access to health and a dignified life," Agurto emphasizes.
La Comuna Collective Company | Co-Direction and dramaturgy Diego Agurto Beroíza and Santiago Rodríguez Costabal | Production Nicole Venegas | Cast Lola Quezada Mendoza, César Cisternas Valdés, Omar Morán and Zirena Piña | Choreographies César Cisternas Valdés | Scenographic Design and Lighting Tobías Díaz | Costume Design Loreto Martínez Labarca and Boris Martínez Labarca| Sound design Cristian Reinas | Technical Chief Víctor Zúñiga | Graphic Design Florencia Rodríguez| Audiovisual Creation Gonzalo Barceló | Theoretical agitation Jorge Díaz Fuentes and Manuel Correa | Communications Claudia Rojas | Social networks Pablo Silva | Curtain making and assembly assistance Nané Wapash | Production of flooring Taller Jose Rojo | Realization of Coleoptera Furniture Screen
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Jun 5 to 21, 2026
Fri Sat— 8 p.m.
Sun— 7:30 p.m.
Sala N1 (Edificio B, piso 2)
$12,000 General
$8,400 Seniors, students, caregivers and people with disabilities.
$7,800 Gral. every Friday
Not combinable with other promotions
-20% discount for Club La Tercera members.
-30% discount for members of the Theater Theater Network.
*Exclusive discounts for the general value. Not combinable with other promotions.
14+ years | Duration: 110 min
Accessibility
The work presents strobe lighting, loud music, nudity, rumbling sounds, total darkness for a long time, smoke and/or dust in suspension, flashes of light.