Chile may be more than 5,000 miles away from Athens, Ohio, but the institutionalized violence and murder of civilians the South American country saw in 1970s and 80s seemed much closer to home Tuesday night.
Tuesday evening, about 25 people sat down at the Ridges Auditorium to watch I’m Outside, a theatrical production written and directed by Seth Hall, a second-year graduate student studying international affairs.
The short play was written to examine the way Chileans deal with their memories of the government-sponsored killings seen under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who took control of Chile in a coup in September 1973.
“I looked through an artistic lens to see how people have really dealt with (the memories),” Hall said.
Hall studied Spanish and theater for his undergraduate degree, which fostered his interest in Latin America.
“I studied abroad in Chile for six months, and I fell in love with the culture,” he said.
The play followed four adults and a younger girl participating in an annual “passing of the time” dinner celebration, during which the adults discarded their regrets, embarrassments and past sorrows into a large trunk.
The child, who was not permitted to leave the house and was referred to only as “one,” tried to question why the adults ignored their memories and only focused on themselves, but they repeatedly rebuffed her questions. At the end of the play, she left the house to explore the outside world and discover what the adults tried to hide from her.
The small audience had a positive reaction to the work overall.
“I thought it was very well done,” said Matt Jacobs, a history Ph.D. candidate.
In addition, much of the audience recognized the historical connections of the work, although neither Chile nor Pinochet was ever explicitly mentioned.
“It’s a strong metaphor for the situation on the streets of Chile,” said Kyle Churman, a second-year graduate student studying history.
bv111010@ohiou.edu
