IT'S A FAMILIAR tale: two 19-year-olds meet at university, study a craft together, and develop a partnership that aims to give voice to their generation. "Whatever that means," Luisa Pardo and Gabino RodrÃguez joke while recalling the humble beginnings of their Mexico City-based theater collective Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (Lizards Basking in the Sun). The two will be performing for the first time in the United States at TBA:12, and seem pleased that the days of pandering to their age demographic are over. "Since then, we are making plays that are very related to our lives. Literally and in any other possible sense," they say.
Pardo and RodrÃguez co-founded their collaboration in 2003 after meeting at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and in 10 years they've built an award-winning, internationally touring theater company. It was ambitious from the get-go: "We started Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol because we want to make everything, all the time," they explain. Which not only means performing, but also becoming cultural archeologists of sorts, an aspect of their craft that will be evident in the two pieces they are bringing to TBA:12. The first, El Rumor del Incendio (The Sound of Fire), focuses on accounts from young revolutionaries in 1960s Mexico. And the second, Asalto al Agua Transparente (The Assault on Clear Waters), is an examination of the centuries-long drainage of the Lake Texcoco lake formation just outside of Mexico City. (The shows will be presented in Spanish, with supertitles in English.)
Both of these productions are considered "documentary plays," in which the actors who portray historical characters also act as present-day investigators unveiling a narrative that isn't just a history lesson, but also a contemporary conversation. A somewhat overly meta device perhaps, but Pardo and RodrÃguez poetically defend it:
"We do not see the human as an essence, but as the result of a story that it builds. We want to build the theater through an account of ourselves."
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Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol
El Rumor del Incendio (The Sound of Fire)
Winningstad Theater at PCPA, Fri Sept 7-Sun Sept 9, 6:30 pm, $20-25, pica.org
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Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol
Asalto al Agua Transparente (The Assault on Clear Waters)
Bodyvox, Mon Sept 10, 8:30 pm, Tues Sept 11-Wed Sept 12, 6:30 pm, $20-25, pica.org
