Cossa, Roberto

(1934– )

   Argentine journalist, screenwriter, and playwright. Born in Villa del Parque in Buenos Aires, Cossa first ventured into theater as an actor in 1957, organizing the experimental group Teatro Independiente de San Isidro with a group of likeminded friends. In 1960 he joined Rodolfo Walsh as “clandestine correspondent,” in the author’s words, for Prensa Latina, the news agency sponsored by the revolutionary government in Havana, Cuba, a position he would hold for 10 years. He would go on to work for noted Argentine dailies such as Clarín, La Opinión, and El Cronista Comercial until 1976.

   His first play, Nuestro fin de semana (Our Weekend), debuted in Buenos Aires in 1964 to great audience acclaim. In 1970, amid the social and political unrest that marked the return of Juan Perón to power, Cossa collaborated with Carlos Somigliana, Germán Rozenmacher, and Ricardo Talesnik in El aeroplano negro, in which Perón’s anticipated arrival is depicted as the black airplane of the title. Satirical and steeped in Artaud’s “theater of cruelty,” this play is a harbinger, according to some critics, of Cossa’s best-known play, La nona (The Grandmother). La nona debuted in 1977 and is characterized by the black humor and penchant for the grotesque that are Cossa’s hallmarks as a playwright. According to critics, La nona is one of Argentina’s most important plays of the 20th century. Two years later, La nona would be adapted for the screen under the direction of Héctor Olivera with a script by the author. Olivera and Cossa would go on to collaborate in 1983 on the script for No habrá más penas ni olvido (Funny Dirty Little War), one of the best-known films of the postdictatorship period in Argentina, along with Luis Puenzo’s and Aida Bortnik’s La historia oficial (1985). No habrá más penas ni olvido was once again directed by Olivera and adapted from the novel of the same title by Osvaldo Soriano. It won a Silver Bear award at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. Cossa is the author of several other scripts for Argentine cinema.

   Among Latin American theater scholars, Cossa is also recognized as one of the organizers, along with Osvaldo Dragún and scores of Argentine theater folk, of Teatro Abierto Argentino (Open Theater of Argentina), a cycle of plays beginning in 1981. Teatro Abierto Argentino represents the best example of cultural resistance to the dictatorship in Argentina and spurred a score of similar cultural ventures throughout the nation. Cossa’s play for that first cycle in 1981, Gris de ausencia (translated in 1997 as Grey Song of Absence), deals with an Italo-Argentine family in exile, a situation unfortunately common in Latin America since the 19th century, aggravated by the years of dictatorship in Argentina.

   Cossa has been the recipient of numerous awards in Argentina as well as abroad. Among them is Argentina’s Premio Nacional de Teatro, the Premio “El Público y la Crítica” of Spain as well as the “Veinte Años Juntos” (20 years together) award presented by the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. Cossa is also a member of the Comisión por la Memoria and is president of the Fundación Carlos Somigliana, founded in support of playwrights. Until 2010, Cossa also presides over the Sociedad General de Autores de la Argentina (ARGENTORES), Argentina’s union for professional authors, musicians, and choreographers. Roberto Cossa resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina.