<i>Los empeños de una casa</i>, de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. EFE TRES Teatro and Teatro de los Sótanos, Corner Stage, University of Alberta, April 19, 2023, and Elder Jerry Wood Atrium, Allard Hall, MacEwan University, April 20, 2023

What do silent films, trains, and a synthesizer have to do with the comedia? Everything in the case of Empeños, the ingenious new collaborative adaptation of Sor Juana’s Los empeños de una casa, between EFE TRES Teatro and Teatro de los Sótanos (Mexico City). Once again, the minimalist aesthetic of EFE TRES has brought a comedia to life using minor costume changes, austere props and set design, and over-the-top physical comedy. They have combined forces with Teatro de los Sótanos, a company better known for their politically charged, cabaret-style original productions, and the result is a tour-de-force.The premise seems simple enough: three travelers, stuck at a station waiting for a train that is indefinitely delayed, need to pass the time. One, a teacher of early-modern literature (Montserrat Ángeles Peralta), has a copy of Los empeños de una casa, which she is willing to read out loud to the other passengers. Serendipitously, the other two are actors—denoted simply as “ella” and “él” in the script—on their way to a show (Lizeth Rondero and Fernando Villa Proal), who agree to perform the action of the play as if in a silent movie or pantomime. They recruit the station announcer (Galo Balcázar) to perform music and sound effects with the assistance of his synthesizer. Each piece could work on its own, but united, Sor Juana’s complex comedia de enredo featuring a love pentagon involving siblings, foreigners, and a cross-dressing gracioso is unraveled in such a way as to delight even the most unwitting, first-time comedia viewer.For those already familiar with EFE TRES’s style from their previous adaptations of El príncipe ynocente or Qué con Quique Quinto (another collaboration with Peralta), you can likely imagine the two actors switching roles, using the props and costumes at hand, along with their body movements and facial expressions to command the attention of the audience. The addition of the maestra and músico, however, add elements that help direct the viewer further in both characterization and plot development. The musician’s sound effects—from the most minor act, such as blinking the eyes, to major and sometimes violent reactions—accentuate the movements of the actors as they morph from character to character. The maestra tells the story with frequent pauses to explain particularly sticky points—the introduction of new characters, the set up of a house that no one seems to be able to escape—and tries her best to remain patient with her pupils.Although we could extol the virtues of every scene and characterization, some standouts include the introduction of Don Rodrigo, the fight scene between Carlos and Juan, and the veiling of the “ladies” for the denouement. Each of these scenes demonstrates a different facet of the talents of these two companies and how they bring their styles together to create something unique, which instantaneously creates audience identification with the characters and eases even the non-initiated into falling in love with Siglo de Oro performance.The introduction of Don Rodrigo was particularly impactful. The company EFE TRES is known for their use of ñaque performance techniques, where each actor plays multiple characters during each scene, and this show demonstrated just how far their abilities to multitask have grown. Up to this point, Villa Proal and Rondero had each played individual roles, playing against each other and the props that stood in for different characters. Since the actors often switch gender roles in this production, we assumed that Don Rodrigo might be portrayed by Rondero, when, in fact, both actors participated in the characterization of Don Rodrigo, with Rondero seated on the top of Villa Proal’s shoulders while wearing a long raincoat to portray Don Rodrigo during the character’s first scenes, underscoring the power and authority of the father figure in the period.The fight between Don Juan and Don Carlos de Olmedo is perhaps the most original scene of the play. Although the actors start the fight, staging the combat scene in earnest, the Maestra’s overly enthusiastic narration, complete with onomatopoeic fight sounds reminiscent of scenes from the 1960s Batman television show, the actors grow tired from their physical acting long before the Maestra even becomes aware of the breakdown in communication. They lean against the clock tower, drinking from water bottles and laughing with the audience at the Maestra’s over-the-top performance. Her gestures, sounds, and narration go on for several minutes before she notices that the rest of the performers are taking a break. The companies’ choices in this scene create interactive identification through humor with the audience, something they carry to the extreme when they involve audience members directly in a later scene.As we reach the denouement, the actors once again break the fourth wall, this time by entering the audience to involve a spectator as a stand-in for Leonor. By involving a member of the audience, they are able to surpass the limits of the ñaque format, since the final scenes of the play require almost all characters to be on stage at once, creating a problem for the two-man show as they attempt to recreate a staging involving eight characters and at least three cases of mistaken identity. Each character of the play is defined by a clothing item. Therefore, a blue headband with attached veil, the symbolic hairpiece that denotes Leonor, is given to a member of the audience, who is then directed by Rondero as Don Rodrigo. Much like the choice to suspend the action during the fight monologue, this scene fully engaged the audience as active members of the play.With Empeños, these companies have taken one of the more complex comedias de enredo and created a master class in comedia viewing for the novice audience member. Those who are new to the theater scene would enjoy a play where the actors used these various methods of breaking the fourth wall, including the asides of the Maestra, which explain characters and difficult enredos, the humorous interaction with the audience during particularly long scenes, and the direct inclusion of audience members in the action. All of these moments help to foster a deeper understanding of the play and bring the Siglo de Oro to life even as far from Mexico City as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. For audience members there, we created subtitles alongside the rest of a Spanish introduction to translation class at MacEwan University. We also have a strong Hispanic community in Edmonton and were able to advertise the show to them through local shops and restaurants that cater to our Spanish-speaking population. One audience member noted how exciting it was to see a production in her chosen hometown in her mother tongue, as it had been sixteen years since she had left Mexico and attended a show in Spanish; demonstrating that these shows are really adaptable and enjoyable for audiences all over the world, and working together with artists can lead to exciting student and community engagement that we might have otherwise overlooked.

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