Review: Abuelita's Christmas Carol by The City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs

UPDATE: Alex Garza brings Abuelita back to the City Theatre, December 20-22, 2010

 

Alex Garza’s photo for this funny, charming tribute might suggest to you a cross-dressing version of elfin Espy Randolph in Zach Theatre’s annual Santaland Diaries.

Not so. For Abuelita's Christmas Carol Alex does use a prop or two, including those wonderful fly-away glasses and a Christmas apron, but for almost all of the presentation he dresses as himself.


He's a bald-shaven, short, rounded man in an olive-colored pullover and jeans, with a wonderful, jumpy animation and the talent to embody nine characters, including himself, principally with shifts in voice and body language. As well as the pet pig, Agapito.

Like Relative Space, this is a short-run show time-sharing a theatre venue with another on-going production. He has scheduled four presentations at the City Theatre, Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings, sharing a set with their production of Christmas Belles. Though he doesn’t need all that background, the tossed-about backstage look of the set and its Christmas tree nicely complement a fable somewhat related to Dickens’ Christmas Carol.

 

In program notes Alex tells us that his principal character doña Rosa or Abuelita (granny) is based on his own grandmother Rosa G. Hinojosa. In his own persona, Alex narrates the story. Doña Rosita is a nutty, distracted, exuberant woman who hosts a televised cooking show in which she rambles along with remarks about her life and family and rarely gets around actually to demonstrating the promised cooking techniques or recipes. For example, she sings “happy birthday” to her husband Luis, on the air, even though “he is up in heaven, I am sure!” 

This scene gives us a happy cartoon with lots of affectionately comic portrayal of Mexican-American bilingual quirks and attitudes, a bit like the portrayal of Tia Carmen in the Statesman’s daily strip Baldo. Rosita’s mangled pronunciation of “tennis shoes” was in itself worth the modest price of admission (and you get to hear it twice in the course of the hour-long show!). 

But Rosita slips on a rolling pin she carelessly left on-stage, falls and hits her head, and Alex takes the story into an otherworldly fantasy, in which the sprightly Rosita meets successively with dead or disappeared friends, family and a pet. Alex Garza’s deft characterizations keep these encounters upbeat, especially with Rosita’s ecstatic recognitions of them and her concerned inquiries as to whether they did, indeed, get to heaven. She is escorted by her deaf neighbor Feliza, traveling in circles around the stage for her revelations, and Feliza brings along her favorite pet piggy Agapito.

The stories that emerge through this journey give us a new understanding of Rosita and of the strength of character underlying that chirping, rushing sweetness. Raised in poverty in Mexico, courted by a handsome stranger from Texas, taken away to the United States where she gave birth to a large number of children – Rosita met her reversals with fortitude and without complaint. Even when husband Lucas died and her later paramour Pepe disappeared permanently one day during a trip to the grocery store. She meets once again a daughter and a grandson who perished in sad, senseless incidents, and Alex gives us the woman’s utter joy at seeing them again. In her imaginings, each has reassuring messages for her. And finally, like the ghost of Christmas yet to come, her neighbor Feliza takes Rosita forward in time to her own funeral. 

Alex Garza captures our attention at every moment throughout this gentle, funny telling of Rosita’s story. We never confuse the characters, not even when husband Luis and paramour Pepe are arguing over Rosita, amidst her interjections and helpful suggestions.


We come away with the feeling that he has captured for us Rosita, her life, her eternal hopefulness, and her pride in the achievements of her offspring and descendants.

Including Alex himself.

Thanks to him for this cross-cultural Christmas gift.

Arts Eclectic audio clip on Abuelita's Christmas Carol, KUT-FM (1min50sec)

Alex Garza at MySpace

 

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Abuelita's Christmas Carol
by Alex Garza
City Theatre Company