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Original article: «Corazón de chocolate»: Obra inspirada en Caso Fruna vuelve a la cartelera para cerrar retrospectiva de compañía Ocaso Teatro

What was briefly presented to the public in 2020 before the country went into lockdown is now making a triumphant return as if it were a premiere. Chocolate Heart: Chronicle of a Sweet Suicide, by Ocaso Teatro, will be back at Teatro Sidarte from August 19 to 22 to conclude the retrospective developed by the company this year, while also fulfilling an artistic debt with one of its most ambitious creations.

Written by David Gajardo and directed by Rodrigo Aro, the piece was inspired by a tragic incident that occurred in 2017 at a well-known Chilean candy factory, where the suicide of a worker and the death of a colleague shortly after shocked the nation and ignited a debate about workplace conditions, harassment, and bullying.

Its premiere was scheduled for March 2020. However, the season had to be abruptly halted due to the crisis the country faced and the total closure of theaters during the pandemic, preventing the production from achieving the run it was designed for.

Six years later, the play returns with a refreshed staging and a context that reinterprets its questions about labor violence, mental health, and job insecurity.

«This play always left us with the feeling of an unfinished story. It only briefly connected with the audience before disappearing for reasons entirely unrelated to the artistic side. Today, we feel that it can finally have the season it deserves and engage with audiences from a very different stage, where discussions about mental health and working conditions are even more urgent,» said playwright David Gajardo.

Instead of reconstructing the actual case, Chocolate Heart imagines what happens after the tragedy. The protagonist is Ingrid, the wife of the deceased worker, who returns to the factory determined to confront a system that continues as if nothing has happened.

Thus, mixing dark humor with a heavily symbolic aesthetic, the production constructs a fiction surrounding silence, guilt, and the normalization of everyday abuses.

«It speaks about issues that often remain invisible: how a hostile work environment can destroy emotional bonds, deteriorate mental health, and ultimately impact entire communities. We were interested in exploring that violence through theater, but also through irony and humor, because here lies deeply human contradictions,» added director Rodrigo Aro.

Wrap-Up of the Retrospective

The reopening also marks the conclusion of the Ocaso Teatro Retrospective, a series that allowed audiences to reconnect with three of the company’s most representative works: The Pick-Up Game, Little Chilean, and now Chocolate Heart.

With over a decade of experience, Ocaso Teatro has established itself as one of the independent companies that has persistently developed its own dramaturgy, blending popular humor, live music, and a critical view of contemporary social conflicts, ranging from public health and migration to inequality and labor abuses.

Event Details

Chocolate Heart
August 19 to 22
Wednesday to Saturday, 7:30 PM
Duration: 70 min / Age: 12+
María Elena Duvauchelle Hall, Teatro Sidarte
Ernesto Pinto Lagarrigue 131, Barrio Bellavista; Recoleta
Wednesday and Thursday special: $3,000; Friday and Saturday Pay What You Can: $8,000, $6,000, $4,000
Tickets available at ticketplus.cl/

La entrada «Chocolate Heart»: A Play Inspired by the Fruna Case Returns to the Stage to Wrap Up Ocaso Teatro’s Retrospective se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.