PAVLOVSKY WEAVES EMOTION, THEATER

Thirty-one years ago, Eduardo Pavlovsky was on his way to a bright career as a psychoanalyst in his native Argentina. Trouble was, he’d also fallen in love with theater. The only answer was to combine the two.

“For me, it was very complicated,” Pavlovsky offered, struggling with his English. “Because when I did the psychoanalytic training, we needed to show that we had very good mental health. The doctors knew I worked simultaneously in theater. They asked me, ‘You’re an exhibitionistic person, yes? Why all these complexes?’ ”

Over the years, the 53-year-old doctor/writer/actor has managed not only to dispel those early doubts, but to establish himself as one of Latin America’s leading playwrights. Currently, he is in town for tonight’s opening of “PAVLOVSKYfest” at Stages, a tribute that includes performances of three of his plays (Pavlovsky will appear in Spanish-language versions of two of them, “Pablo” and “Potestad”) plus staged readings, discussions and book signings.

“In 1959, I began to study psychoanalysis and work with children, group psychotherapy,” he said. “At the same moment, I discovered psychodrama. So I began to work in the two different (areas) regularly.” The first time he put pen to paper?

“I remember it was Sunday and I was with my wife and children after dinner, and I began to write. I don’t understand why. I felt only that it was the most important thing I could do.

“In ‘Camara Lenta’ (on the relationship between a fighter and his manager, to be presented at Stages in English and Spanish beginning March 12), I had no idea what I wanted to express. I have a special feeling about something, then I see it: people, relationships, contradictions. But in the beginning, I haven’t thought it out.

“In ‘Pablo,’ I didn’t understand what I wrote until I finished it. Then I knew it (was) about the memory of a person, love, fidelity, death. Death in general. Decadence. I write--I can’t explain why.”

However, Pavlovsky acknowledged that his own persona is deeply wrapped up in the material.

“I feel that I write every time about me,” he said. “For example, ‘Pablo’ is about my life, the things I lived; I recognize all of it.” He feels a similar bond to the lead character in “Potestad,” an Argentine doctor who secretly raises the child of a “disappeared” militant couple as his own.

“It’s normal history in my country,” he said grimly. Yet the setting largely serves as a backdrop for his character studies: “I identify with this man, I understand his suffering.

“I think my theater talks about extreme situations,” Pavlovsky continued. “ ‘Senor Galindas’ (considered his most important play to date) was about torturers--who are not only torturers but very good fathers. The torture is just their job; there is no (disassociation) between good and evil.”

Although he has not abandoned those early political overtones, Pavlovsky has become aware of a shift in his work, in focus and style: “At this moment, I don’t know what I can write. The first writings (in the ‘60s) were influenced by Ionesco, Beckett and Pinter. Then I discovered action language. Now I’m looking for another language--more abstract.”

While he’s looking, the thrice-married father of four has taken a year’s break from writing books (his latest such effort, “Terapia y Existencia,” was published in 1982) and from psychiatric practice (normally he conducts two two-hour group sessions daily). Upcoming now: tours of “Potestad” in Montreal, Cuba, London and Columbia.

“I am a professional actor,” stressed Pavlovsky, whose credits include an appearance in the 1986 Julie Christie film “Miss Mary.”

“I like the omnipotence. And I like my own theater very much for acting.”

So, apparently, does the public.

“ ‘Pablo’ is very successful right now,” he noted. “The audience says, ‘All that you write is mine. I may not understand it, but I feel the same things as the characters; what they’re saying is part of my life.’ . . . I like this kind of (reverberation). It’s not intellectual, it is not psychoanalytical. It is emotional--and that is the best.”