The off-theater plays you can't miss in Buenos Aires this September

Starring: Luis Campos, Mateo Chiarino and Luz Miraldi. Directed by Marcelo Moncarz.

Based on the novel by Manuel Puig and adapted by Claudia Piñeiro, the play portrays the relationship between an exiled Argentine who has lost his memory and a New Yorker hired to accompany him on walks around the city. As Larry tries to reconstruct the identity of this mysterious man, he also begins to reassess his own life. Through fragmented memories, silences and confessions, Maldición eterna a quien lea estas páginas explores memory, exile and everything that remains hidden even when we believe we have forgotten it.

Where: Hasta Trilce, Maza 177. Tickets.

Starring: Fernando De Candia, Lionel Sinnott, Florencia Tropeano, Francisco Godoy and cast. Written and directed by Fernando De Candia.

Inspired by An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, the play offers an immersive experience that turns the audience into part of the story. Set in a fictional town whose economy depends on large-scale mining, it follows a doctor who discovers that the water is contaminated, triggering a conflict between public health, political power and economic interests. With a strong audiovisual setup and staging that blurs the boundaries between the stage and the audience, it invites viewers to reflect on the cost of progress and collective decision-making.

Where: Ítaca, Complejo Teatral, Humahuaca 4027. Tickets.

Starring: Margarita Bali. Directed by Margarita Bali and Gerardo Litvak.

At 82, choreographer and artist Margarita Bali revisits more than six decades of artistic creation in a piece that combines contemporary dance and multimedia to engage with her artistic archive. Through images, memories and new creations, the play explores how bodies and memory change over time, in a work that brings together biography, experimentation and reflection on the creative process.

Where: Galpón de Guevara, Guevara 326. Tickets.

Starring: Leandro Arancio, Milagros Coll, Sofía González Gil, Valentín Mederos and cast. Directed by Marcelo Savignone.

What is the point of staging a classic when reality seems to demand something else? In La imaginación enferma, the Cuerpos company starts with a performance of An Enemy of the People to break the rules of the stage and question the very act of making theater. The result is a metatheatrical work that dismantles the conventions of classical theater to ask what place art occupies in the face of the present.

Where: Teatro del Pueblo, Lavalle 3636. Tickets.

Starring: Mariana Cavilli, Marta Haller, Abian Vainstein, Valeria Roldán and Diego Quiroz. Directed by Felicitas Kamien.

With a retrofuturistic aesthetic and a gender perspective, this play, now in its seventh season, imagines a future in which male fertility has virtually disappeared and every birth becomes an extraordinary event. In this context, three women run a precarious underground laboratory dedicated to assisted reproduction while trying to survive mounting debts and a family past shaped by scientific ambition. A dystopian story in which science fiction becomes an excuse to question who gets to decide over bodies and the future.

Where: Almagna Teatro, Guardia Vieja 3783. Tickets.

Starring: Lucía Milone, Alejandro Vera and Edgardo Vázquez. Directed by Jorge Filippis.

What happens when we stop recognizing our own story? That is the starting point of La mujer dormida, a psychological thriller about memory, identity and the boundaries between reality and what we believe we remember. After waking up in the middle of a storm with no memory of who she is, Patricia tries to reconstruct her past alongside her husband and son. But as fragments of her life return, her certainties begin to unravel and every answer raises a new question.

Where: Teatro El Vitral, Rodríguez Peña 344. Tickets.

Starring: Juli Coria, Santiago Ceresetto, Braian Ross and Graciana Urbani. Directed by Flor Berthold.

An apparently harmless lie brings together the fate of a lonely retiree and a young couple who are about to be evicted. From that encounter, La suerte ajena builds a story in which chance, solidarity and desperate decisions transform the lives of everyone involved. A dramatic comedy about those seemingly minor decisions that, without anyone realizing it, end up changing a life forever.

Where: Border Teatro, Godoy Cruz 1838. Tickets.

Starring: Consuelo Amal, Ana André, José Luis Escobar, Valeria Finocchiaro, César Gómez and cast. Directed by Matías Vitali.

What happens when a place stops belonging to the people who have always lived there? Gentrifikeishon starts with that question to build a tragicomedy in which a small business tries to resist the advance of a multinational chain. As the conflict grows, memories become confused, time falls apart and identities begin to blur. Between humor and grotesque comedy, the play explores memory, uprooting and everything that disappears when the familiar landscape begins to change.

Where: Teatro El Jufré, Jufré 444. Tickets.

Starring: Taro Disi, Dai Mendel, Lucas Piccolo, Valentino Romero and Ariel Sánchez. Directed by Rocío Sabin and Simón Birmajer.

Julio works at his father's old bar and is forced to serve free drinks every night to Eugenio, a customer who is as mysterious as he is alcoholic. When a bet forces them to spend more time together than either would like, Eugenio begins to reveal his past as a boxer and the story behind that privilege. A play that combines humor and drama to explore second chances, unexpected connections and the fights that continue long after leaving the ring.

Where: El Método Kairós, El Salvador 4530. Tickets.

Starring: Pilar Castiñeyras and Liza Polo. Directed by Tona Passarelli.

Far from European castles, Vampiras transports the imagery of Gothic horror to a small town in Argentina's Littoral region during the 1990s. There, a teenager fascinated by the supernatural meets a woman who has spent centuries hiding her true nature. Their encounter gives rise to a story in which horror becomes a way to explore desire, the passage of time and relationships between women.

Where: Teatro El Grito, Costa Rica 5459. Tickets.

Starring: Sofía D’Amelio, Jorgelina Flury, Luis Alberto González, Olave Mendoza and Joaquín Sesma. Directed by Natalia Miranda.

This play brings Libertad Demitrópulos' acclaimed novel of the same name to the stage for the first time. Set in the late 16th century, it follows María Muratore, a woman soldier who joins Juan de Garay's expedition in search of a free life. Through this journey along the Paraná River, the production revisits events such as the founding of Santa Fe and the Revolution of the Seven Mestizo Leaders, giving a voice to characters who were left out of the official historical narrative. A historical drama that speaks to the present through a critical perspective on conquest, memory and silenced identities.

Where: Hasta Trilce, Maza 177. Tickets.

Starring: Cecilia Chiarandini, Merceditas Elordi and Kevin Schiele. Directed by Alejandro Giles.

Based on a text by Spanish playwright Eva Hibernia, La semana del diluvio brings together a group of characters isolated by a flood in a small provincial hotel. When a woman tries to escape a past that haunts her, the arrival of a man and the presence of a mysterious ghost force them to confront long-suppressed secrets. As the water continues to rise, so do the secrets each character tried to keep beneath the surface.

Where: Ítaca, Complejo Teatral, Humahuaca 4027. Tickets.

Starring: Victoria Bertone and Ana Mir Bertone. Directed by Judit Gutiérrez.

Algo muy mío en el mar follows a woman as she reconstructs different moments of her life in search of her own identity. Her younger and older selves share the stage, talking through memories, humor and emotions, while the sea becomes a powerful metaphor for memory, freedom and everything that remains deep within us.

See what's on at theaters along Calle Corrientes: Time Out Buenos Aires.

Where: El Camarín de las Musas, Mario Bravo 960. Tickets.

Starring: Analia Sanchez and Luis Millicay. Directed by Claudia Mac Auliffe and Sonia Novello.

Desires, frustrations and imagined lives intersect in El cielo en una habitación, a play that follows two characters who dream of a different life. While Omar believes he has found the love of his life, Mari imagines a different future as she organizes the wardrobe of the woman she works for. An intimate story in which four walls are enough to contain the dreams of those who still imagine another life is possible.

Where: La Gloria Espacio teatral, Yatay 890. Tickets.

Starring: Anahí Gadda. Directed by Sandra Franzen.

La escriba explores the relationship between an author and the character she is creating. As she tries to find the direction of her work, her protagonist travels through Argentina's Littoral region on a journey shaped by music, memory and the stories of women who were left out of the official narrative. Along the way, writing becomes a way of recovering other memories and other ways of inhabiting the world.

Where: Hasta Trilce, Maza 177. Tickets.

Starring: Agustina Rivarola. Directed by David Gudiño.

Days before her best friend's wedding, Estefanía returns to the bedroom where she spent her teenage years in Saladillo while looking for a date for the party. Surrounded by diaries, old dreams and a wedding dress she never got to wear, she ends up entering an unusual competition to choose the city's best single woman. A comedy about expectations, social pressures and the pressure to conform.

Where: Nün Teatro Bar, Juan Ramírez de Velasco 419. Tickets.