THEATRE REVIEW
Hasiff Fadul, Javier Balderas, and Corina Vela (Photo by Andrew Vasquez)
The Latino Theater Company in association with Mexico’s Foro Shakespeare, a non-profit that develops performing arts projects with direct social impact presents this uniquely staged, highly physical story (written by Elaine Romero) of the human cost and futility of the recurring revolutions in Latin American countries.
By Carol Edger Germain
The country isn’t mentioned, and it’s not necessary, no specifics are required to feel the hope and pain of people inspired to make a better world, only to be forced to live with the high price of change.
There are only three actors, and only one speaks. The play starts in the present, with a mother desperately seeking her disappeared son in the turmoil of living under a totalitarian government, then journeys to the past for a window into how these three came to be where they are amidst shattered dreams and harsh reality. It is performed in Spanish, with English supertitles, in the smallest theater at Los Angeles Theater Center (downtown LA, easy to get to off Hill Street, with $5 parking next door). I thought I might miss some of the dialogue since I don’t understand much Spanish, but since only one person speaks, and in short sentences, it was clear, not a problem.
Javier Balderas in “Revolutions/Revoluciones” (Photo by Andrew Vasquez)
The General (Hasiff Fadul) nimbly pulled off his extremely physical mute role, and the murdered son (Javier Balderas) was appropriately less developed and somewhat bewildered to be where he was on the other side. The mother (Corina Vela) was essentially our narrator, as she communicated with the spirits of the deceased. I am happy to see this collaboration between the Latino Theater Company in the US and the director, Bruno Bichir, and his company, Foro Shakespeare, in Mexico, and and hope to see more American/Mexican collaborations at LATC.
I would like to see this particular production in a larger space with special effects, lighting, perhaps even smoke, mirrors, or ghostly panels moving in a breeze to accentuate the mystical connection between the living and the dead.
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