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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2017
This essay reflects on the different spectatorial, political, cultural, affective and bodily experiences of attending Lola Arias's MINEFIELD/CAMPO MINADO, both at the Royal Court in London and at a university auditorium in Buenos Aires. Drawing upon the 1982 Malvinas/Falklands War, the Argentine internationally recognized director's production featured six former soldiers who used to be enemies on the battlefield telling real stories about the conflict. Although there was almost nothing that could be called traditional theatre onstage, the production received standing ovations on both sides of the Atlantic. But what was applauded at the end of each performance? The audiences’ reactions, including my own, were very different at the two venues. I argue that Arias's production hinged upon a high-risk, highly exposed public encounter that envisioned a change of perspectives, not only for the ex-soldiers involved but also for the spectators. Rather than staging veterans as war heroes, Arias's social experiment exposed both teams on a common ground of vulnerability. MINEFIELD constructed a spectacle of intimate power that delineated a naked form of transnational citizenship.
1 See, for instance, Jessie Thompson, ‘London's Best Theatre Shows 2016: From Yerma to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’, Evening Standard, 28 December 2016, at www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/londons-best-theatre-shows-2016-from-yerma-to-harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-a3426591.html; and Natasha Tripney, ‘Year in Review: 145 Shows That Defined Theatre in 2016’, The Stage, 23 December 2016, at www.thestage.co.uk/features/2016/year-in-review-145-shows-that-defined-theatre-in-2016.
2 In 2003, Arias conducted a residency for young artists at the Royal Court. Since then her work has become internationally celebrated. She has worked with actors, non-actors, musicians, homeless people, policemen, children, babies and animals.
3 The public interview with the director and performers took place on 2 June 2016, the opening night at the Royal Court.
4 My informal talk with Arias took place on 28 December 2016, at a café in Buenos Aires.
5 In March 2017 Minefield was performed at festivals in Paris, Frankfurt, Angers and Montpellier. In November 2017 it will be touring again in the UK.
6 It was only the second time that a bilingual piece was performed at the Royal Court.
7 Arias referred to her work in this way at a public lecture at King's College, University of London, 6 June 2016.
8 Ibid.
9 The pop single ‘Don't You Want Me’ by British group the Human League was released in November 1981. The fourth single from the band's third studio album Dare (1981) was also the best-known and most commercially successful recording. In 1981, the year before the war, the single was Christmas number one in the UK.
10 Arias, public lecture at King's College.
11 Ibid.
12 The UNSaM also sponsored the First National Biennale of Performance that took place in 2015 in Buenos Aires.
13 See Juan José Santillán, ‘Campo Minado, Malvinas en primera persona’, Clarín, 20 November 2016, at www.clarin.com/extra-show/teatro/campo-minado-malvinas-primera-persona_0_S1_wvnjWl.html; and Alejandro Cruz, ‘En Campo Minado, la vida después de dos soldados enemigos’, La Nación, 17 November 2016, at www.lanacion.com.ar/1956844-la-vida-despues-de-dos-soldados-enemigos-en-las-islas-malvinas.
14 Interestingly, the scene was subtly modified during the rehearsals. It progressed from a yellowish tabloid to a more BBC-news-like model, resulting in a more balanced encounter, as Seear, Mike notes in ‘ Minefield/Campo Minado: A Veteran in the Theatre of War’, in Sharman, Adam, Kleiner, Milena Grass, Lorusso, Anna Maria and Savoini, Sandra, eds., MemoSur/MemoSouth: Memory, Commemoration and Trauma in Post-dictatorship Argentina and Chile (London: Critical, Cultural and Communications Press, 2017), pp. 261–80Google Scholar.
15 Butler, Judith, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London and New York: Verso, 2004).Google Scholar
16 Ridout, Nicholas, ‘Welcome to the Vibratorium’, Senses & Society, 3 (2008), pp. 221–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
17 Informal talk with Arias 28 December 2016, in Buenos Aires.
18 Rancière, Jacques, The Emancipated Spectator, trans. Elliot, Gregory (London: Verso, 2009), p. 13Google Scholar.
19 Informal talk with Arias, 28 December 2016, in Buenos Aires.
20 Jean Graham Jones, presentation at the Latin American Studies Association Conference (Lima, 1 May 2017), ‘Translating Collective Imaginaries through National Conflict Reenactment: Lola Arias's Campo minado/Minefield’ (unpublished), p. 8.
21 Jacques Rancière, The Emancipated Spectator, p. 15.
