The characters in this story: an unemployed man, a policeman, a firefighter, a prominent grandmother, and a pregnant woman, meet under the care of a therapist who indoctrinates them in order to erase their anger and expunge the sadness from their bodies. Because, on the very same day, their children chose to take their own lives.
—Isabel Baboun Garib, Remonstrator  

With brutal and grotesque language, the deaths of each of the adolescents begin to be relived in the voices of their parents and the paramedic assistant.
—Teatro del Puente archive 

I preserve the importance of geography in the texts, of that remote, abandoned territory of which the author speaks.
—Valentina Durán, actor and producer Teatrhoy

The government is concerned. It does not want a repeat of what happened in Tongoy, where 20 or so children jumped into the sea. They do not understand why. They try to create opportunities, but the deaths continue to occur.
—Arturo Ledezma, elciuadano.com

We are faced with a therapy session that is delusional, part of a state-backed “overcoming grief” program which encourages the bereaved to subdue their pain without seeking to understand its causes . . . the play . . . poses perennial questions about the cost of building a national identity that collapses the further we travel from the center.
—Sebastián Pérez Rouliez, Revista Hiedra

Images from the Teatro del Puente production with Verónica Medel, April Gregory, Ignacia Agüero, Jaime Leiva, Juan Ananía, and Bosco Cayo. Photos by Matías Lasen.

An introduction to the play by Bosco Israel Cayo Álvarez

Bosco Israel Cayo Álvarez is an actor, a director, and a playwright, who has taught in drama schools throughout Chile. His The Lady of the Andes was the winner of the 2017 Chilean National Council for Arts and Cultures literary award for best play, and his José Desierto was awarded the 2020 Chilean Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage playwriting prize.

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