Going into ¡Violencia!, we were expecting something quite different based on the title. What we found instead was a funny, energetic and playful contemporary tragicomedy about heartbreak, mental health, family and all the different versions of ourselves that can end up fighting for control inside our heads.
Written by Valeria Loera and directed by BT Hayes, the production was presented at Repertorio Español as part of The New York Community Trust's Van Lier Fellowships. It felt refreshingly different from some of the more traditional productions we have seen at Repertorio. This was modern, fast-moving and sometimes wonderfully ridiculous, mixing comedy and tragedy with farce, music and even a little theatrical magic. There is a lot going on, but that is also a big part of the fun.
At the center of the story is Violencia, played by Paloma Michelle, a young woman dealing with a broken heart and everything that comes with it. We learn from her mother that she was given her unusual name because she almost died during childbirth, fighting to survive from the very beginning of her life. Now she is fighting again, only this time much of the battle is happening within herself.
That internal struggle is brought to life through six different versions of Violencia, each representing different thoughts, emotions and parts of her personality. They argue, interrupt and compete to be heard, creating a funny but also very relatable picture of what can happen when the voices inside our heads get a little too loud. Beneath all the comedy, the play has plenty to say about depression, insecurity, losing confidence and the time it can take to find yourself again after heartbreak.
We particularly loved the physical world created around them. Gabby Irving's set design is full of places for the different Violencias to appear and disappear, with characters popping out of cupboards, bins and from underneath the bed. It gives the whole production an almost cartoon-like quality that fits perfectly with the slightly chaotic world of the play. At various points we also get a stripper, a ghost and an inflatable sex doll that provides one of the funniest bits of theatrical magic in the show. We will not spoil exactly what happens, but its unexpected transformation was very well done and absolutely hilarious.
The production is powered by an energetic cast who work really well together. The six Violencias in particular feel incredibly connected. With so many characters, overlapping conversations and quick changes in tone, things could easily become messy, but there is a real sense that everyone is working together to create the same strange world. It honestly felt like a company that had been working together for much longer than they actually had.
There are some great individual performances too. Vanessa Hernández was a particular standout as Violencia's glamorous and wonderfully dysfunctional mother. She has a fantastic presence and brings plenty of personality to the role every time she appears. The father, played by Antonio Melenciano is another very funny character, despite the slight complication that he is dead. His ghostly appearances add even more to the play's strange, cartoonish sense of humor.
Kevin Rios also gets one of the show's most memorable moments as the aforementioned stripper. Saying too much would ruin the joke, but it was definitely one of our favorite parts of the show. Pelayo AF also deserves a special mention for some excellent comic work, particularly in another scene involving that inflatable doll. The whole cast fully commits to whatever strange situation the play throws at them, and that commitment is a huge part of why the comedy works so well.
The production is performed in Spanish with English supertitles, and as a non-Spanish speaker, Daniel Hunt found them particularly important here. Comedy can sometimes be tricky through translation because reading too far ahead can reveal a punchline before the actors have actually delivered it. Thankfully, the supertitles were really well timed and kept up impressively with a script that has lots of dialogue, quick exchanges and characters occasionally speaking over one another. It meant Daniel could still enjoy the comedy without constantly feeling a step ahead or behind everyone else.
We would still love to see Repertorio Español bring back the personal seat back subtitle screens that we have experienced during some previous productions. With the supertitles positioned high to the side of the stage, you have to look away from the performers to read them, and depending on where you are sitting, the sightlines can also be a little tricky. The individual screens make it much easier to quickly glance at the translation while still keeping your attention on what is happening on stage.
If there is one area where ¡Violencia! could still grow, it is in finding an even stronger rhythm. There is so much happening and so many different theatrical styles being thrown together that we think more performances in front of an audience would naturally help everything settle. Once that rhythm becomes even tighter, the comedy could really fly.
That is also why it is such a shame that the run was so short. The New York Community Trust's Van Lier Fellowships give emerging artists an opportunity to develop and present work, and it is great to see Repertorio Español supporting the next generation of theatre makers in this way. When something this promising comes out of a program like this, we would love to see it given the chance to continue beyond its initial performances. There is clearly a huge amount of work behind ¡Violencia!, and it deserves the opportunity to reach more audiences.
More than anything, we just had a really good time. ¡Violencia! deals with heartbreak, depression and one seriously dysfunctional family, but somehow sends you out of the theatre feeling happy and energized. The cast brings so much enthusiasm to the stage, BT Hayes' direction fully embraces the craziness of Valeria Loera's script, and the whole production feels fresh, ambitious and full of life.
We left Repertorio Español excited to see what these artists do next, and we really hope this is not the last we see of ¡Violencia!. Give it a little more time to settle into its rhythm and there is plenty of potential for the production to have a life beyond this initial run. It deserves to come back and, most importantly, it deserves to be seen by more people.