El Ciudadano
Original article: «Las cacerolas vacías»: Obra de compañía La Maulina Producciones reúne a mujeres a pensar su lugar en la historia
«Empty Pots»: La Maulina Producciones’ Play Invites Women to Reflect on Their Place in History
The question of how history is constructed, where we stand now or where we once stood, particularly for María and Elena, permeates «Empty Pots,» a play in which these two women reunite at a funeral for a companion.
The funeral appears empty to them, accompanied only by Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting «Judith Decapitating Holofernes,» until another woman arrives.
Directed by Soledad Cruz and part of La Maulina Producciones’ journey, the play premieres on Thursday, September 3, at the Sala Bunster in the Centro Cultural M100.
«María and Elena were key figures in a women’s movement that organized against the government in the early 1970s. Gradually, the past begins to intrude upon the present, revealing the contradictions of those women who, amidst social chaos, ventured out of the domestic sphere to claim a public voice while paradoxically defending a return to an order that wanted them back in their homes,» the theater review states.
As the director points out, the play aims to engage with the present by «challenging the way we construct memory.»
«Often, we view the past from very defined positions, but we were interested in exploring a less comfortable area: observing these women in their intimacy, listening to their fears, convictions, and contradictions, without erasing the consequences of their actions. Memory is not just about recalling what happened; it’s also about questioning where we tell it from and what we leave out of that narrative,» Soledad Cruz elaborates.
Thus, «Empty Pots» traverses black comedy, the grotesque, and the fantastical to delve into the interstices of Chilean memory. As memories fracture, what initially appeared to be a struggle for recognition begins to unveil the violence these very women sought to exclude from their own narrative.
In this context, another aspect addressed by the play is aging from the women’s perspectives: «My varicose veins hurt, my hips, my knees, my chest, my teeth…» Elena tells María in one of the texts.
«We were interested in having older women carry this story. They are bodies marked by time, but also by the decisions they made, by what they defended, and by what they chose to forget,» the director emphasizes.
«There is something very powerful in seeing them today,» she adds, «when they no longer occupy the social place they once held, attempting to reconstruct who they were and questioning what remains of them. Old age appears not just as physical deterioration but as a territory from which memory returns, contradicts, and also demands accountability.»
«The play seeks to enter into their contradictions, asking what moved them, what space they conquered, and what happens when, many years later, they must revisit the consequences of their own decisions,» concludes Soledad Cruz.
About the Company
La Maulina Producciones is a theater company and creative platform led by director, actress, and producer Soledad Cruz, which brings together interdisciplinary teams of artists around projects in creation, production, and cultural management.
Their work stems from an authorial quest linked to memory, heritage, identity, and territory, understanding theater as a space that can revisit elements that are part of our history and our collective imaginations.
Show Information
«Empty Pots» will be presented from Thursday to Sunday, between September 3 and 13, at the Centro Cultural M100, Espacio Patricio Bunster.
Performances are scheduled for Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 PM and Saturdays and Sundays at 7:00 PM.
Tickets are available through the Ticketplus system. Tickets on Thursdays cost $4,000. For more information, visit the M100 website.
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