Tuesday, April 05, 2016

AND THE WINNER IS...A Modern Day Version of Who's Afraid of Virgnia Woolf: "in this corner...." Short Theatrical Pieces by Rosina Conde, Ignacio Flores De La Lama, Juan Carlos Rea, and Hugo Salcedo

The short plays presented in the book, in this corner...  absorbs the raw world of Mexican dynamics between spouse and spouse. All action occurs within a boxing ring and the book underlies, like uppercuts, what it means to be married in Mexican relationships with comical precision that land more than just punches.

The writers: Rosina Conde, Ignacio Flores de la Lama, Juan Carlos Rea, and Hugo Salcedo - don't throw sucker punches to our characters but to the struggles of both relationship power and miscommunication while exemplifying them in the open space of a physical boxing ring.

The dialogue between our characters in their different stories, supplement what's needed to address martial issues of younger and older generations in an overall dissection of failing relationships complemented by the current socioeconomic disparity among Mexican American's in the southwest.  

A ONE SIDED FIGHT BREAKS OUT:

"SHE (fed up.) About our 33 years?
HE: Yes.
SHE: Haven't you said enough? You're going to far. What is it you want? You're bothering me What're you getting at?"
HE: I…I…don't know.."

Like a modern day version of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the characters "SHE" constantly belittles and tests the patience of her husband of 33 years "HE." The critically acclaimed play and film manifests marriage mayhem as Taylor attacks and verbally abuses her passive aggressive beau in a seemingly dark and dangerous game. 






Name calling, potential divorce conversations, and other taboo subjects that have been shielded behind bedroom doors are written in an accurate and comical fashion - to help us readers remember that these spouses,  who are our mothers and fathers, were in love at one time or another and in hopes with satire, that their humanity does not become distraught by ceaseless stereotypes.

in this corner…will take the reader into a revised edition of Taylor and Burton's masterpiece as it embarks on a look into Mexican marriages and the humor, the passion, and overall the comedy that can be located in arguments that sometimes can resemble a boxing match.