The Camp

Griselda Gambaro (Argentina, 1967)
Translated by Margaret Carson

When Martin shows up to his new job at an unidentified corporation, he immediately develops a sense of unease: the director is a man named Franco who wears an S.S. uniform—ostensibly just for fun—and his female companion Emma acts like a diva but has a shaved head and a number tattooed on her arm. Lured into playing along with the ‘as if’ quality of what he sees, Martin refuses to recognize the intimations of off-stage violence until it is too late. This drama by one of Latin America’s most celebrated playwrights offers a prophetic vision of Argentina’s Dirty War (1976-1983), when thirty thousand people were murdered by the military regime.