Review of Abuelita de Batman, by Proyecto Teatro
by Michael Meigs

Artistic director Luis Ordaz, a multi-talented wild man, both directs Abuelita de Batman ("Batman's Granny")and appears in one of the five short pieces. This piece was written in the 1980's by the highly prolific and successful Mexican playwright and screen writer Alejandro Licona.

Taking half a leaf from Austin's bilingual Teatro Vivo, this time the company provides English-language translations of the dialogue, projected on the cyclorama behind the actors on the cyclorama. They do the same on their YouTube trailers, embedded below.

Anglos without much exposure to Latino theatre and television may well be mystified by these pieces. Imagine, say, something along the lines of I Love Lucy with a very broad acting style, girly women and macho men, but written with an emphasis on sex and infidelity. Naughty in the way that Feydeau farces are naughty, with a broad satiric wink and the implication that the wicked generate their own punishment.

In 1980s Mexico this was scandalous material. In his recent posting on tripvine.com, Rob Faubion says that several Mexican municipalities banned the production.

Faubion calls Proyecto Teatro a "new theater troupe" -- an understandable mistake. Although the group has left a couple of neglected websites on-line and offers several interesting videos on YouTube, they have devoted their energy to their principal clientele, Austin's extensive Spanish-speaking population. They appear to be succeeding -- the Boyd Vance Theatre at the Carver Center hosted a good turnout last Saturday evening.

In You Love Me Despite What You Say Proyecto Teatro co-founder "Guicha" Gutiérrez plays a distraught middle-aged wife of a politician who failed to come home at night. Benjamín Pérez staggers in the front door at 10 a.m.  He is drunk as a skunk, unbuttoned, and covered with lipstick. He weaves his way through explanations, without truth or excuses, applying instantly recognizable politician's rhetoric to convince his wife of his admiration and devotion for her. She scrambles to accept his bloated mendacity and sighs, "Abuelita de Batman, I am lucky to have such a husband!"

 

There's a relatively long explanation of that phrase, which Licano uses to spike the final line of dialogue in each of his sketches. A Texan equivalent might be, "Sure as shooting, . . ." or "For sure, . . . ." to affirm the certainty of the declaration that follows. Originally "A  huevo, . . ." in the 1930s, but transformed by popular speech to avoid the implied obscene reference ("huevos" or "eggs" can refer to testicles). It became, "Granny, [as sure as] I'm your grandson. . . ." The popularity of the 1970s Batman television program prompted a transformation in popular jargon to "Abuelita de batman, . . . ." (More than you needed to know, right?)

SIDAharta gives us chunky playboy Rodolfo (Diego Villareal), in an eager fret to prepare for a hot date when he is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Estela. They'd spent a few casual nights screwing "for a good time, without any commitment." Rodolfo is busy trying to get Estela out of the way. She has come to deliver some very serious news, suggested in the title of the piece. (SIDA = AIDS and "harta" is the feminine form of "full up" or "fed up").

 

 

Ordaz and his cast give SIDAharta an enigmatic extra twist. Juan Pablo Flores plays Estela as a transvestite, an interpretation not evident or required by the text. Just to make sure we understand this, in mid-sketch Estela takes off his/her wig while gazing in the mirror, then puts it back on. This interpretation may push beyond Licano's original text but it makes this version striking and very contemporary. Flores is attractive, vulnerable and convincing as Estela.

 

My favorite was Serenidad y Paciencia, in which Jesús García plays an insufferably self-satisfied doctor receiving "Guicha" Gutierrez as a bewildered elderly cancer patient. He's merciless in his good humor about her imminent death. The caricature of the omniscient, detached self-congratulating physician is more acute and actual than the earlier easier parody of the politician. García winds up, "We physicians are of impeccable integrity; abuelita de Batman, I wish our patients were the same!"

In That's When We'll Be Happy drector Ordaz plays a prison escapee who gets home to his wife, only to find an unknown naked man sleeping in her bed. This piece has little to add to the classic cuckold sketch, which must date back to Neanderthal times, although Erika Santana as the wife is a darling.

Licona winds up with Modern Times -- not the Charlie Chaplin version but rather the first whiff of the sexual revolution almost making it to Mexico. As shown in the medallion image at the top of this review, Úrsula Marmol is entertaining her young lover Amado ("beloved" -- Noé García Robles).  Amado becomes alarmed when he realizes that she hasn't hidden the affair from her husband. Oscar Ponce as hubby Ladislao, a university professor, turns up, and the assumptions of "open marriage" are rapidly put to the test. 

 

For my taste, García Robles overplayed the misery and nervousness of the young swain a bit, turning him into a clownish victim. That probably fulfills the expectations of an Austin Latino audience, but this cross-cultural Anglo would have enjoyed seeing Amado try to rise to the pretended level of sophistication of his hosts.

Proyecto Teatro produces these pieces with flair, fine scenic taste and an outreach to the Anglo world. Abuelita de Batman is a far better and more entertaining glance into the Latino psyche than those interminable telenovelas. ALT looks forward to their future productions!

 

Review by Mark Brody, Austintheatre at Yahoogroups, January 21

 

EXTRAS

YouTube: A history of Proyecto Teatro, a conversation between Luis Ordaz and "Guicha" Gutierrez, December 18, 2008 (Spanish only)

Click to view program for Abuelita de Batman by Proyecto Teatro (.pdf BIG file: 7MB!)

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Abuelito de Batman
by Alejandro Licona
Proyecto Teatro