Osvaldo Dragún
Osvaldo Dragún was a prominent Argentine playwright known for his innovative contributions to theater over a career spanning four decades. Born in San Salvador, Entre Rios, Argentina, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Dragún was influenced by his family's background and the socio-political climate of Argentina, particularly during the military dictatorship of Juan Perón, which forced many artists into hiding or to adopt pseudonyms. This complicated his legacy, as his extensive body of work includes at least thirty plays and numerous television scripts, some of which remain difficult to attribute accurately.
His notable works, such as "Historias para ser contadas," are characterized by a unique storytelling approach that blends reality with fantasy, humor, and political commentary, inviting audience engagement. Dragún’s theatrical style was marked by simplicity, using minimal props and small casts, which made his plays accessible for various productions. Throughout his career, he worked in Argentina, Cuba, and Spain, eventually returning to Buenos Aires to lead the Teatro Nacional Cervantes until his passing in 1999. Dragún's final play, "El pasajero del barco del sol," was staged posthumously, underscoring his lasting influence on Argentine theater.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Osvaldo Dragún
Playwright
- Born: May 7, 1929
- Birthplace: San Salvador, Entre Rios, Argentina
- Died: June 14, 1999
Biography
Osvaldo Dragún wrote at least thirty plays for the stage and many more for television during his four-decade career. The military dictatorship of Juan Peron placed many creative artists in danger. Dragún, therefore, sometimes used pseudonyms so it is difficult to establish an accurate record of his writing.
Dragún’s Russian Jewish grandparents fled to Argentina early in their lives to escape the pogroms in Russia. They settled in rural Argentina. Osvaldo was born in San Salvador, Entre Rios, Argentina, which figures in some of his plays. In 1944, the family moved to Buenos Aires, where, after secondary school, Osvaldo entered the university. He soon left the university to become an actor. He worked with the Teatro Independiente Fray Mocho, a stronghold of independent theater in Argentina.
His first two plays, La pesto viene de Melos (the plague comes to melos) and Tupac Amaru, are historical, and were staged in 1956 and 1957 respectively. Although they are not typical of Dragún’s work, they do use the kinds of sets that he preferred, bare stages with minimal props. This simplicity of presentation along with small casts made them popular for their easy presentation. Dragún’s dramatic byword was “flexibility.”
Dragún’s third play, Historias para ser contadas (stories to be told) had its premiere in 1957 and is generally regarded as his best play. It consists of the collection of stories told by the actors to the audience in very up-close, personal ways. The stories need not necessarily be told in a prescribed order. Not all of them need to be used in a given performance of the play, which begins with a prologue in which the actors greet the audience and encourage their personal involvement with the play. Dragún believed that storytelling is a quintessential part of drama, so his plays, which intermix reality and fantasy, cutting humor and political commentary, often boil down to stories that create the setting through images rather than through the use of scenery and props.
The political situation in Argentina encouraged Dragún to be out of the country frequently during the Perón reign. From 196l to 1963, he served as director of the Seminario de Autores Dramaticos de La Habana in Cuba. While there, he wrote Milagro en el mercado viejo (miracle in the old market), for which he received the Casa de las Americas Prize in theater in 1962. Between 1965 and 1972, he wrote nothing for the stage but devoted himself to writing television plays and film scripts under assumed names. He also worked frequently in Spain.
Dragún was instrumental in founding some of Argentina’s most noteworthy theatrical groups. He returned to Buenos Aires in 1996 as director of the Teatro Nacional Cervantes, a position he held until his death in 1999. His final play, El pasajero del barco del sol (the passenger of the sun boat) was performed in Buenos Aires about a year after his death.