Jorge Mateluna—former member of the Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR), the armed wing of anti-fascist resistance during the Pinochet era—is four years into a sixteen-year sentence for his alleged involvement in the 2013 robbery of a Banco Santander branch in Santiago. Mateluna’s trial—a travesty of uncorroborated “evidence” from unreliable (or dishonest) “witnesses”—and its aftermath have been dramatized by Chilean playwright and Neruda screenwriter Guillermo Calderón in his work MATELUNA, which receives its U.S. premiere this week at Redcat.
In recent weeks, members of the Chilean parliament have been compelled to address issues raised in Calderón’s play, a “theatrical exercise to understand Mateluna the person and challenge a political culture that does not know how to honor the legacy of those who fought against the dictatorship.”* The appeal to justice moves forward.
MATELUNA, Thursday through Saturday, October 26 through 28, at 8:30 pm.
REDCAT, Disney Hall, Music Center, downtown Los Angeles.
