In much the same way that Frida Kahlo made performance an integral part of her craft, Carlos Gardel, the tango singer of the 1920s and 1930s, also performed as part of his public and private life, in his songs, on the movie screen, and in publicity. In fact, Gardel's career offers the theater crowd of the postmodern era an array of performances as material for dramatic works. Gardel's star quality and playboy image made him immensely popular during the 1920s and 1930s in the River Plate area. What is truly significant, however, is his staying power. His unique style and expression have not only become the stuff of legends in Argentina and Uruguay but have also found their way into other countries. Over sixty years after his death Gardel continues to capture the attention of dramatists and audiences alike. Although Argentina has traditionally generated the greatest number of works that include Gardel, increasingly playwrights are using the Gardelian icon to speak about issues in other parts of the Hispanic world. In this way, Gardel is becoming a transnational figure, crossing cultural and political boundaries in Latin America and even Spain. It is precisely this polyvalent and charismatic quality that makes Gardel an attractive figure, but more importantly, the flexibility that his multiple images provide makes him an ideal dramatic character.

Gardel's ability to mask his “true” identity and perform the role of the superstar tango singer provides dramatists with an inherent metatheatricality on which to base their metaphors for other types of performances enacted in both private and public forums. Dramatists writing in the years after Gardel's death have found that the persona adopted by Gardel offers an ideal example of how traditional artistic performance can be transferred to daily life, and how in turn, nontraditional, antitheatrical acts can be construed as performance. These two theoretical approaches to performance coalesce perfectly in the figure of Gardel. Consequently, through the use of theatrical and filmic texts dramatists and directors explore through Gardel and the tango a variety of performed identities in the River Plate region and beyond: by comparing past and present national myths; by demonstrating the possibility for finding openings for expression in censored societies; by examining the effects of dictatorships; by articulating culture through performance and building bridges between exiled groups, their homeland, and foreign lands;