A dark fairy tale of a story that plays as part myth, part morality tale and part romantic fantasy, ERENDIRA, based on a short story by the fabulous Gabriel García Márquez, feels like staged epic poetry. The simple tale of debts owed and cruelly extracted, this work of music, movement, flashbacks and dreams weaves an otherworldly web, even as it is set in the most mundane of earthly settings.

Young Erendira lives with and waits on her grandmother, a woman of domineering spirit trapped in a deceptively frail body. When Erendira accidentally burns their home to the ground, her grandmother forces her into a life of prostitution to repay her debts. Faced with a flood of johns, Erendira eventually meets a young man who has genuine affection for her, and whom wants to take her away from the life she is being forced to live.

The story is simple, but the execution is fantastical. As the grandmother, Ching Valdes-Aran verbally slices anyone who crosses her path. Her tiny body is often encased in a body-mask contraption designed to look like a large dress, and which allows her to be wheeled about. In muted contrast, Erendira herself, delicately portrayed by Elisa Terrazas, is no force to be reckoned with. Confronted by lascivious men, here represented by skeletal puppets, she is essentially unable to defend or protect herself. The scenes change through the use of light and shadows and video projections. The combination of elements is effective as designed.

This ERENDIRA is a multi-media event that maintains the core of the subject text while infusing it with the kind of stage magic that makes theater the realm of the make-believe. Impressive.

- Kessa De Santis -

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