Awaiting Revolution: Performing Chile’s Hierarchies in Ernesto Orellana’s Inútiles

Abstract In response to the 2019 social uprising in Chile that resulted in several casualties, trauma, and an eventual plebiscite where the nation decided to rewrite its constitution, scholars are tracing what led to this social outburst. This study examines Ernesto Orellana’s Inútiles (2016) to show how theater crystallized the desires and need for change prior to the estallido social of October 2019. In this sense, the play is a prelude to the uprising. As a cultural product, it dismantles the racial and gender hierarchies that have been sustaining the nation and materializes a discourse of emancipation embodied by Mapuche characters. By analyzing the hierarchies unveiled by the 2016 play along with images that emerged during and post-October 2019, this study makes the case for art as intuitive toward social change and that art can help to eradicate the oppressing powers of a nation.