Mexico City's Summer 2023 Theatre Season

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• Mexico City's Summer 2023 Theatre Season
• Timothy G. Compton

Each year, as I prepare to go to Mexico City, hoping to see the best the season's theatre offerings have to offer, I scour the internet for reviews and descriptions and schedules and venues. I also write to a fair number of people in the industry asking for recommendations. Some years I know that certain plays will be absolute must-sees. Such was not the case for the summer 2023 season—I learned of no consensus blockbuster, or anything close. And yet I found, among the abundant offerings, outstanding theatre. Some years I think back on what I saw and can easily choose one or two that towered far above all others—not so for me with the summer 2023 season. And yet I found nearly a dozen plays that were nearly flawless works of art, full of talent and creativity, and most of which portrayed something of importance about and/or for Mexican society. Women's issues figured prominently in about half, while women wrote more than half. Children's theatre also had a bigger role than usual in the season's best. The number of offerings far exceeded anyone's ability to see them all. The variety was astounding. Any number of excellent offerings from past seasons returned for new runs in new locales. Several of the plays I saw were sold out and I was turned away from another because it was full. I didn't see a single printed program, but most theatres provided programs you could download to your phone; I do miss the pre-pandemic days of printed programs. Significantly, I heard not a word about the pandemic; theatre in Mexico seems to have fully recovered from that catastrophic shutdown. Most theatre practitioners I spoke with are counting the days until a new administration takes over for President López Obrador, as he has slashed support of theatre, and of the arts in general, during his presidency. [End Page 65]

Despite being a "children's play," or perhaps because of it, Trino has occupied my thoughts and musings more than any other of the season. Written by Paulina Soto Oliver and directed by Alberto Lomnitz, Trino portrayed the story of an orphan boy in Santa María Tonantzintla, a town in Puebla known for its church—Mexico's finest example of baroque architecture. Raised by his godmother, he faced bullying due to smallpox scars. His godmother encouraged him to forego his practice of physical retribution and to instead try to identify with one of the myriad angels depicted in the church. Once he developed inner strength after being tutored by a supernatural wolf, he learned to look on his tormentors with understanding, treat them with compassion, and build bridges to them. Eventually he added pock marks to one of the church's angels to finally see a reflection of himself there. Masterful puppets (designed by Humberto Galicia) and puppetry took this poignant folk story to aesthetic heights. The magic started before the play even began, as the actors gave the audience a pair of tutorials. For the first they demonstrated how the play's numerous shadow puppets worked by placing puppets on sticks between a projector and a screen. After the demonstration, they moved the projector and the puppets behind the screen. For the second tutorial, one of the Bunraku-style puppets, Tomate, controlled and voiced by actor Ángel Luna, instructed the audience on how to be good spectators (open your eyes, laugh out loud, applaud). Tomate primed the audience to interact with the play rather than just watch. Author Paulina Soto Oliver served as the narrator and also as the voice and main puppeteer of Trino, the other Bunraku-style puppet, while Luna sometimes joined her in bringing Trino to life. Having the two main characters embodied by puppets allowed them to be young without needing to find child actors. And children in the audience felt at liberty to call out to them, creating extra drama. The host of shadow puppets, which all four actors worked beautifully to bring to life on the screen, joined Trino and Tomate, and eventually a third...