THEATRE VERSUS OPPRESSION
Registered Charity SC039092
Using applied theatre to bring about positive change and development

About The Play

Cabezas Dislocadas (Dislocated Heads) was first performed in Asuncion Paraguay in 1998. After winning a place at national festivals it made a comeback the following year. The play was a highly polemical look at the stereotype attitudes that are firmly grounded in Paraguayan society. The story of a troubled family that consisted of

- A disillusioned father, crushed by the dictatorship and unable to reach his full potential after being labelled a traitor to the government

- An over bearing mother, disappointed in her own life and her perceived failures of her husband, she pins all her dreams on her favourite son, refusing to acknowledge the fact that he is gay

- The older ‘perfect’ son angered at his mother’s favouritism of his younger brother, bitter at his loveless marriage and frustrated by his father’s apathy

- The younger son living in a society that condemns homosexuality, tired of living a lie, afraid of losing his mother’s love yet exhausted of trying to live a life she can approve of and angered by his father’s ‘death in life’

- The ‘empleada’ (the maid) brought from the countryside as a child with false promises of the education she would receive in return for working from the family. She sees all but comprehends it through the simplicity if an ignorant child as she bemoans her aging and loveless life.

The play explores the attitudes that dominated post-dictatorship Paraguay: the fear of the past dictatorship and current democracy; the politics never spoken of and the torture and imprisonment that accompanied it; the widespread practice of having a favourite child and distinguishing between siblings; loveless marriages; class distinction; the prohibition of homosexuality and the unfulfillment of dreams.