Minefield

by Lola Arias

In Minefield six Falklands/Malvinas war veterans who once faced each other across a battlefield now face each other across a stage. Together they share memories, films, songs and photos as they recall their collective war and embody the political figures that led them into it.

Soldier, veteran, human – these men have stories to share as they take us from the horrors of war to today’s uncertainties, with brutal honesty and startling humour.

Genres: Plays

152 pages, Paperback

Published November 2, 2017

About the author

Escritora, directora de teatro, performer y compositora de canciones. Fundó la Compañía Postnuclear, un colectivo interdisciplinario de artistas con el que desarrolla diversos proyectos de teatro, literatura, música y artes visuales. Junto con Ulises Conti, Andrés Ravioli y Juan Ravioli conforman un grupo con el que compone música para sus obras.

En teatro escribió y dirigió: La escuálida familia, Estudios de la memoria amorosa, Poses para dormir y la trilogía: Striptease, Sueño con revólver y El amor es un francotirador.
En colaboración con el artista suizo Stefan Kaegi, desarrolla proyectos de teatro documental como Chácara Paraíso (una instalación biográfica con policías brasileños) o Airport kids ( un proyecto sobre niños internacionales en suiza).

Publicó: Las impúdicas en el paraíso (poesía, Tsé-Tsé), La escuálida familia (teatro, Libros del Rojas), Mi nombre cuando yo ya no exista (teatro, Ed. Cierto Pez, Chile), la trilogía Striptease, Sueño con revólver y El amor es un francotirador (teatro, Ed. Entropía) y relatos en revistas.
Sus textos fueron traducidos al inglés, francés y alemán, y representados en varios festivales internacionales: Steirischer Herbst Festival, Kunsten Festival des Arts, Spielart, Stuke Festival, etc.

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A play written and cowritten by Lola Arias and six veterans from Falklands War/Guerra de las Malvinas. The veterans (three from Argentina, three from UK) are the ones who act in a play, and they talk about their path during the war. They talk about real stories, about the war and how the war influenced their life, their mind and relationship with the people around them. I love how each of them speaks their language - British speak English, and Argentinian speak Spanish, right next to them. They don't communicate in a language with one another, because British don't understand Spanish and vice versa, but they said they understand each other very well. I also like that they have a camera and they 'film' each other, and it's immediately projected behind them on screen.
It was a bit traumatic because I see how traumatized are they, especially after I saw the play on YouTube.
I can't tell that I loved the story, because not a lot of people loves a real story about war, but I really like the concept of this, showing us that there is no "right" side in the war, just "two sides", and they usually don't want to kill each other, but have to.

[Harry McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lola Arias' Minefield does what somebody probably should have done years ago; allow veterans of a conflict to tell their own stories. In this play, 6 veterans of the Falklands War - 3 British, 3 Argentinian - tell their stories, forming a theatrical collage that does a far better job of theatricalising a conflict that fictionalised narrative probably could.

The text itself - by which I mean the physical product - is genuinely interesting. On one side you get the entire text printed in English, and on the flip side, the entire text is printed in Spanish. In performance, the text is obviously spliced together; the British speak in English and the Argentinians in Spanish.

Unfortunately, what the text lacks is the risk that felt integral to the performance; it seems more like a transcript than a playtext, despite the inclusion of photographs to aid in visualisation of the performance. But still, admirable for its ambition as opposed to its execution.

[cam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Campo Minado es una obra que reúne 3 veteranos argentinos y 3 británicos que pelearon en la Guerra de Malvinas.
El proyecto hace un buen trabajo al explorar lo que quedó en sus cabezas, confrontando así dos distintos puntos de vista de la misma historia, también indaga las marcas que dejó la guerra y las formas de representación de la memoria.
Al ser argentina al empezar a leer la obra, ya habia establecido cual bando era el bueno y cual era el malo, pero conforme fui leyendo cai en cuanta de que todos esos soldados eran víctimas y me dolió mucho leer sus experiencias.

[Noa Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the live performance and loved it. Cried! Then bought the book.