Noviembre

“The Daughter is alone at 16: after the un- expected death of The Mother, she finds herself in a world of adults accustomed but fearful of death. This work was born from sadness, pain and death.
Theater is a constant experiment, it is alive, it seeks its way, its meaning.
We want to be agents of our own projects, we are ac- tors seeking their languages.
We also experiment, we want to signify, console and understand ourselves.
This work arises from sadness, pain, death. It is an emotional reflection.
«[…] And I’m walking, I’m walking, walking, I sit on the steps by the door, I bask, I walk delirious,
as if a rat catcher led me by my nose into the river, I sit and baskon the steps; I shiver this way and that.
My mother stands and beckons me, and seems within my reach, but not: I’d approach —she stands seven steps away, and beckons, I’d approach— she stands seven steps away.
[…] the horses dashed, my mother flies above the pave- ment, beckons me —then she flew off.»
Arseni Tarkovski Translated by Valzhyna Mort”

Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol, 2005

Noviembre [November] is not an easy–reading dramaturgical text but a fragmentary piece made specifically to be worked upon on stage. This piece opens up a new vein in the collective’s work because it was the first time that we used autobiography in a more frontal way. It was also the first time that we included in the textual material a language borrowed from non–artistic fields: the work began with a physician’s long description of the physiological characteristics of death.

I [Luisa] who wrote and directed the play, was very interested in working on the emotions represented on the bodies of the actresses and investigating the gesture that synthesized them. There were only female characters, although one of them (The Mother) was played by a man. The scenes were comprised of isolated capsules that did not unfold in a fluid way, but through radical cuts. There were few scenic elements and almost all of them were plastic toys: colored balls, umbrellas, watering cans, and so on.

De By: Luisa Pardo • Con textos de With texts by Charles Bukowski, Peter Handke, Eduardo Langagne, Rómulo Par- do, R. Tagore, Brenda y Emiliano Urteaga • Versión 1 con Version 1 cast: Alaciel Molas, Sofía Padilla, Denise Castillo y Luis Maya • Versión 2 con Version 2 cast: Rocío Bengoa, Sofía Padilla y Denise Castillo • Escenografía y vestuario Scenography and costumes: Úrsula Lascurain • Producción Production: Gabino Rodríguez.

November premiered at Casa Talavera in 2005, it had a run at Teatro La Capilla, the gymnasium of the Centro Universitario de Teatro, Teatro de Cámara CasAzul, and was a finalist in the XIII Festival de Teatro Universitario. It was published by Editorial Tierra Adentro in the compilation Nuevos dramaturgos de Veracruz, 2006.