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| Photos by Erika Gómez |
By Joe Straw
In Las Diosas Subterráneas (“Subterranean Goddesses”) the Greek myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, kidnapped by Hades, God of the underworld, is intertwined with the story of Luz García, a character based on real-life women kidnapped by human traffickers, to tell the story of mothers looking for their missing daughters who find strength in community.
Both pieces were created collectively by ensemble members Beatriz Cabrera, Alejandro Joan Carmarena, Brisei Guerrero, Stefanie Izquierdo, Ernesto Lecuona, Mercedes Olea, and Jonathan Ramos from original ideas by Rocío Carrillo, who directs. The production manager is May Fei.
The leafless tree in Mexico is perhaps a symbol of the missing women in Mexico. The symbol is draped across the upstage wall in browns and desert patterns with roots extending well beyond the cavernous underbelly and is an ominous opening of the type of production we are about to see. The problem of women disappearing in Mexico is not an exaggerating, over 100,000 since 1964 never to be found again no matter the effort of the search.
The disappearance happens not so much under a cloud of darkness but in plain sight with those controlling the light who have the ability to control their way in the cavernous places they are inhabiting. They move, filtered by the ominous masks that disguise their everyday job. Or possibly that is their full-time endeavor.
And it starts with a casual misunderstanding between mother and her daughter who seems to be getting on the nerves of her mother, or her mother wants her daughter to explore new people, new avenues, and so she is left with those people who are guided by nature, flowers that captures the attention of one so young that she is enraptured as the mother slowly edges away, distracted by the benevolent calling of another venture.
And so, the daughter is left alone with these strange people who appear to be harmless but leave after a harmless sexual interplay leaving the young one alone, in a deserted area, and suddenly captured by a man that takes her away, without her permission, and no possible way of escaping.
Her mother returns to retrieve her daughter only to find that she is no longer there. Now she is on a quest, with two dogs, to find her daughter who is missing without a trace.
The Latino Theatre Company does a grand job of finding theatrical works of art and bringing them to Los Angeles. This company is from Mexico and the show has long since closed. Actually, they were performing two shows in repertory. This one and Pueblo Espíritu!
Las Diosas Subterráneas was written as a collaborate effort it doesn’t have one writer’s strong through line and the director Rocío Carrillo, although justly directed, may have had his through line complicated with too many cooks trying to get the right flavor.
The actors justly represented the players, and the performances were excellent. My Spanish is not that good, but one was able to follow with no problems at all. There was dancing in the beginning but not with the precision of formal dance training. (Actors who can move.)
One did not get a program upon entering the theatre and one found that odd.