Undressing the superman: seventy years after “Collacocha” by Enrique Solari Swayne

Abstract

Collacocha by Enrique Solari Swayne is, without any doubt, an emblematic play of the Peruvian theatre of the 20th century. The consensus it achieved in the field of theatre as well as in the imaginary citizenry, maintained its validity for decades through stagings and publications in Peru and abroad. The present work gives an account of the history and context of its production, reception and the debates that took place by analyzing interviews, testimonies, reviews, editions, in addition to what literary criticism and the history of theatre have to say. Likewise, the analysis of the play attempts to answer the reason for its success and validity, what impact it had in the field of national theatre, how it achieves such a consensus, what dramaturgical and ideological mechanisms it mobilized. The main character, Echecopar, as emblematic as the play itself, is deconstructed through the analysis if the different discourses it represents: sexist, anti-oligarchic, anti-communist, ante-internationalist, anti-intellectual, anti-poetic, authoritarian, intolerant, paternalistic, violent and patriotic. This exercise leads us to discover that many of these discourses are still in force and active in Peru and that the mechanism of polarization on which the play builds its protagonist continues to be an efficient means of ideological pressure.