An Exercise of Pleasure

Abstract

Patricia Ariza is a leading figure in the Latin American Theatre movement and a founder member of Teatro de la Candelaria from Bogotá, now recognized as one of the most influential companies in South America. Their performances are powerful and politically uncompromising and, as with many non-traditional groups in Latin America, this has led at times to insidious oppression.

She is currently engaged in work with the street people of Bogotá and has directed a number of festivals including Muestra de Teatro Mujer—El Poder de las Flores and Gotas de Rap (The Rap Opera). She was in Britain in September, 1995 at the invitation of Jill Greenhalgh of the Magdalena Project, which has brought together women working in radical theatre internationally. She accompanied the Rap Opera, which was performed in Cardiff and London. She is interviewed here by Julia Varley of Odin Teatret, who has known her work for many years. She discusses the importance of making theatre with groups of disenfranchised and marginalized young people at a time when the scale of violence and risk they face in their everyday lives is unprecedented.