Mauricio Kartun Brings 'Baco polaco' to Madrid, a Reimagining of Euripides Set in 1930s Argentina

Mauricio Kartun, the 79-year-old Argentine playwright, arrives in Madrid with 'Baco polaco', a reworking of Euripides' 'The Bacchae' transposed to Argentina in the 1930s. The production is presented at the Teatros del Canal, where dancer and choreographer Nacho Duato has called for the cancellation of a dance company supported by Israel. Kartun, who does not write political essays, appear on television, or engage in partisan politics, is nonetheless one of the most influential intellectuals in contemporary Argentina. Audiences await his plays eagerly, and he premieres in Buenos Aires every three years with clockwork regularity. His works, set in a diffuse past and performed in a strange dialect, speak to current realities and a national identity shaped by a thousand traditions. Following the deaths of Latin American theater giants Augusto Boal and Enrique Buenaventura, Kartun has become a beacon and reference point for the region's theater. In his view, celebration is a site of popular power, justice, and dissidence. The Madrid staging coincides with the controversy over the Israeli-supported dance company at the same venue, highlighting debates over cultural funding and political expression.