Why Latin American Theatre Struggles to Reach Beyond Its Borders: How the Postdramatic Theatre Movement Happened in Latin America in the 1970s But No One Noticed

Abstract

This essay argues that the experimental theatrical innovations that emerged in Latin America during the 1960s and 1970s paralleled, and in some cases anticipated, what Hans-Thies Lehmann later termed postdramatic theatre. While both movements sought to dismantle traditional dramatic structures and reimagine theatre’s relationship to politics and performance, only the European postdramatic movement has been canonized within global theatre discourse. By contrast, Latin America’s “theatre of crisis”—born out of dictatorship, repression, and anti-colonial resistance—has been marginalized, its contributions obscured by Eurocentric hierarchies that continue to define what is considered legitimate theatrical innovation. Through a comparative analysis of these two movements, this essay exposes the colonial biases embedded in global theatre history and theory. It argues that while postdramatic theatre represented an aesthetic rebellion from within the cultural center, Latin American theatre embodied a decolonial insurgency from the margins—one that fused politics, ritual, and community-based creation as a means of survival and transformation. Recognizing this lineage demands a re-evaluation of the global theatrical canon and an acknowledgment of Latin American theatre’s central role in shaping modern performance practice.