Resumo
We propose a critical reflection on the concept of ‘documentary theatre’ or ‘document theatre’, focusing on the methodological aspects of approaches that integrate archival materials and documents into creative or research-creation processes, understood as extending beyond their mere representation on stage.
To this end, we will present the project Ensayo escénico, developed in two stages and directed by Cristian Flores. The first stage, El ensayo (2023), was a research project into the practices of Chilean political theatre in the 1960s and 1970s. The second, Ensayo escénico sobre la desaparición (2024–2025), explored experimentation with archival materials and documents relating to the concept of enforced disappearance, specifically within the Latin American context.
The use of archival documents and materials also constituted a specific form of the political, by shifting the discussion beyond a fixed definition towards modes of collective subjectivity. These processes helped to open up spaces for dialogue around complex issues, raising questions that enable multiple creative responses. From this perspective, a collective practice emerged in which poetics are continually discovered, negotiated and reformulated in practice.
The project sought to explore the concept of the staged essay, inviting a group of actors and actresses to bring archival documents to life on stage, examining their legacies, resonances and silences. This exercise drew on play, quotation, speculation and experimentation with various ways of embodying documents through the body and group work.
Furthermore, Cristian Flores invited the Arde collective—comprising women working in the archives—to participate as archivists on and for the stage. Unlike previous experiences, this collaboration did not seek to document the process, but rather to explore how the archive could serve as a starting point, a stimulus and a driving force for creation. The methodology employed established a circular practice between documentary research and theatrical exploration, placing the archive at the very centre of the theatrical action.
This approach conceives of the archive not as a passive collection, but as a post-custodial mechanism that must be embodied, explored and reimagined in dialogue with the present. Thus, the archive shifts from its documentary function to become a tool that enables open, relational processes of creation that are in constant tension with their own limits.
Drawing on this specific experience, we aim to contribute to current discussions on hybrid methodologies that intersect archiving and research-creation, exploring how these processes generate mechanisms of collective knowledge, non-linear forms of transmission and spaces of contestation in the face of the archival system’s custodial hegemonies.
Palavras-chave: Chilean political theatre, Documentary theatre, Research-creation, Post-custodial archive
