American lieutenant in the Army of the North
By Fran Rowe Robbins November 14, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Theater
I Fought with Pancho Villa
Wed–Sat, Nov 19–22, 7:30pm
Sun, Nov 23, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
100 pesos

In honor of Mexican Revolution Day, Narissa Ferrer presents I Fought with Pancho Villa, which relates the story of the Revolution with a cast of one—Katherine Oaks, an American lieutenant who fought side by side with Villa and his army.

In May of 1911, Villa captured Ciudad Juarez, a decisive victory that allowed him access to modern weapons. The war should have been over in three years, but the revolutionaries took another seven years to work it out. The most important result of the Mexican Revolution was the drafting of a constitution. Finally, the dream of education for the masses could become a reality. One of the reasons why Villa couldn’t become president of his beloved country was because he was totally illiterate—he couldn’t even sign his own name. During the 10 years of revolution, more than two million people lost their lives. Villa was assassinated in 1923 at the age of 46.

An unspecified asylum
By Henry Vermillion

Playreaders Theater
The Hothouse
Wed–Thu, Nov 19–20, 7pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
20 pesos

Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter is widely considered the foremost playwright in the English language today. He can be wickedly funny, as in The Hothouse, his early play about the power games played by the inept, blustering and clueless bureaucrats who run a state asylum of an unspecified nature.

While the unseen patients (known only by number) are supposedly safely locked away in their rooms, Colonel Roote, the institution’s irascible, paranoiac director, berates his staff for overheating his office and plotting behind his back.

After many flights of the Colonel’s overheated verbosity, it becomes clear that his own grip on reality is limited to simply maintaining his power and position against the connivances of Gibbs, his second in command. Miss Cutts, Roote’s administrative assistant/mistress, is not above casting her net also for the up-and-coming Gibbs. The insolent Lush is another of Roote’s subordinates—Roote twice tosses his glass of whiskey in Lush’s face for brazenly telling the truth. The only idealist in this unholy crew is the lowly Lamb, whose job is to make sure each patient’s door is securely locked. His name is unfortunately prophetic—as in “sacrificial lamb.”

Pinter, in plays like The Homecoming, is a master (like Chekhov) of conversations that don’t quite connect with each other, of the difficulty of true communication. But in The Hothouse, he gives Roote and Lush speeches that spin bureaucratic clichés on and on until they sound like absurd poetry. 

In short, The Hothouse is like Masterpiece Theater turned upside down; like Monty Python, but ultimately darker.

The talented cast includes Jim Newell as Roote, Michael Gottlieb as Gibbs, Joanna Bryne as Miss Cutts, Wade Ashley as Lamb, Dennis Pipes as Lush, newcomer Norman Araiza as Tubb and Gerry Camp as Lobb. Henry Vermillion directs. Church doors open at 7pm and the play begins at 7:30pm, or sooner if the (limited) seats are all taken.