Radrigán was born in 1937 in Antofagasta, one of three brothers born to working class parents. As a child, Radrigán worked to support the family's scant income, never receiving a formal education. Entirely self-taught, he became an avid reader and began writing poetry and stories from the age of twelve. Radrigán was appointed editor of Unpublished Notebooks, an official publication of the Unpublished Writers Center, from November 1961 to July 1962. At the age of twenty five he published his first volume of short stories Los Vencidos no Creen en Dios, followed six years later by his second novel El Vino de la Cobardía. He died on October 16, 2016 at the age of 79.
Themes and style
Radrigán's plays vary little in subject matter or dramatic technique. His characters are those living on the margins, outcast from society; substance addicts, prostitutes, the unemployed.. The majority of these individuals occupy grey and depressed urban worlds, e.g. a crumbling block of flats in La Felicidad de los Garcia and a filthy, dilapidated brothel in El Toro por las Astas. Others exist in further marginalised spheres, deserted dumps on the outskirts of Santiago, and withering farmlands far from civilisation. In each instance, Radrigán illustrates the crippling effects of poverty and isolation and the destructive implications for individual wellbeing and the family unit. Radrigán began publishing work amid the Pinochet dictatorship, although his narratives reflect a lived experience of a country long-accustomed to poverty. Although not explicitly political, it is difficult not to observe the autobiographically infused nature of Radrigan's plays, particularly given his poverty-stricken upbringing, “without mentioning it by name, effectively indicts the Pinochet regime for its complicity in the brutalization of the poor”.
Worldwide acclaim
Internationally esteemed, Radrigán's work has toured worldwide and two of his works have been performed in the UK to date. Sue Dunderdale's production of Las Brutas premiered at Theatre 503in September 2011, and in October–November 2013, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the 1973 Chilean coup, Robert Shaw's new translation of Hechos Consumados starring Sian Reese-Williams, premiered at The Bussey Building in Peckham. In 2011 he received Chile's National Prize for Performing and Audiovisual Arts.
Theatre
Testimonios de las muertes de Sabina,
Cuestión de ubicación,
El loco y la triste,
Las brutas,
Redoble fúnebre para lobos y corderos,
Hechos consumados,
El toro por las astas, Santiago September 1982; Teatro El Telón, director; Alejandro Castillo
