Review: EMILIANA: A REVOLUTION CABARET at Ground Floor Theatre

Ground Floor Theatre’s production of Emiliana: A Revolution Cabaret is unlike anything else currently on an Austin stage. Written by Jessica Peña Torres and directed by Mateo Hernandez, the play blends cabaret, comedy, melodrama, music, Mexican history, and audience interaction to tell a tragic story with wit and flair.

Set in 1940s Mexico City, the play follows Silvia Ibarra, the daughter of a wealthy doctor who expects her to marry well and embrace the respectable future prescribed for a woman of her class. By night, Silvia becomes Emiliana, a cabaret performer inspired by revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata. Through this bold alter ego, she speaks for the poor and disenfranchised and dreams of returning her grandfather’s land to the campesinos.

Silvia’s double life is not only political. As she steps outside the expectations of her family and social class, she also comes to understand her attraction to women. Her emerging identity places her at odds with her traditional parents and the man she is expected to marry. When her betrothed discovers the truth about Emiliana/Silvia, his sense of ownership, fueled by gender power and entitlement, erupts into violence and ends in her tragic death.

Peña Torres draws from the cabaretera films and heightened melodramas of Mexico’s Golden Age of cinema, reshaping the familiar fallen-woman narrative around class, Indigenous identity, queer desire, and the unfinished promises of the Mexican Revolution. Emiliana’s admiration for Zapata is more than part of her act. Her desire to restore stolen land to the campesinos recalls his fight for agrarian reform and the revolutionary call for land and liberty. By placing that history in the hands of a queer woman decades later, Peña Torres asks who is allowed to inherit the image and language of revolution.

The work carries considerable history and social commentary without feeling like a lesson. Peña Torres grounds those ideas in Silvia’s life, where the political and personal cannot be separated. The society that determines who owns the land also attempts to control whom she loves, how she behaves, and who she is allowed to become.

The cabaret structure moves freely between Emiliana’s act, Silvia’s memories, and the events leading to her death. The actors break the fourth wall, address patrons directly, and enlist them as the voice of the people. The audience becomes part of both Emiliana’s celebration and her reckoning.

The acting is deliberately heightened to capture the comedy, glamour, and melodrama of the period. The style is flamboyant and emotionally extravagant when needed, but always purposeful. Jessica Peña Torres (Emiliana/Silvia), Rai González Cartagena (Citlali), and Diana Patricia Guizado (Musician) share excellent chemistry and make the excess feel at home in the world they create.

Peña Torres is captivating as Silvia and her revolutionary persona. She moves between the dutiful daughter and fearless cabaretera, Emiliana, without losing the connection between them. Emiliana may be bolder, louder, and more provocative, but she is not separate from Silvia. She is the part of her that refuses to remain hidden. Peña Torres gives the character humor, sensuality, anger, and conviction while revealing the vulnerable young woman beneath the bravado.

González Cartagena is delicious in their many roles. As Citlali, Emiliana’s faithful companion, they bring warmth, wit, and an easy rapport to the stage. They also embody figures from Silvia’s memories, including her mother, father, and grandmother’s ghost, moving among them with precision and making each transformation distinct.

Guizado is a wonderful onstage Musician whose contribution extends far beyond accompaniment. Her live music gives the production its pulse, while her reactions and exchanges with the others deepen the action.

Director Mateo Hernandez embraces the shifts in tone rather than smoothing them away. The action moves from broad comedy to political commentary, from Spanish-language songs to painful memories, and from audience participation to tragedy without losing its identity. The format may appear unruly, but a firm hand guides the chaos.

Daniel Ruiz Bustos’s scenic design, supported by Gustavo Hernandez’s properties and set dressing, creates a worn cabaret that still carries traces of its former glamour. The faded beauty of the space mirrors Emiliana herself: defiant and dramatic, but marked by the world outside its doors.

Emiliana: A Revolution Cabaret is a sad tale told with considerable wit. It is clever without becoming distant, politically engaged without losing its humanity, and staged in a way that holds the audience from beginning to end. Its combination of history, social conflict, memory, music, and melodrama should not work as easily as it does, but this trio makes the improbable look effortless.

The play also takes on an important subject: gender-based violence. And if you thought humanity had left that behind in the mid-20th century, you would be wrong. The intersection of intimate relationships, gendered power, entitlement, and violence is hardly confined to that era. In 2024, the UN reported that 60% of female homicides worldwide were committed by intimate partners or family members, compared with only 11% of male homicides. We still have a great deal of work to do to keep women and girls safe, and the growing national conversation around male loneliness, trad wives, and opposition to feminism and women’s rights suggests we are not moving in the right direction.

This world premiere surprised me in all the right ways. Ground Floor Theatre has given Peña Torres’s original work a vivid debut, led by three artists unafraid of comedy, tragedy, or dramatic excess. In a multicultural city like Austin, we need much more of this. 

A note about language: On Friday night, Peña Torres asked how many audience members understood Spanish. When few raised their hands, the cast adjusted and delivered most of the dialogue in English. The songs and several lines remained in Spanish when it best served the moment. Anglophone patrons may miss an occasional phrase, but the physical storytelling and music make the production easy to follow. Some performances are presented entirely in Spanish, so check the schedule before attending.

 Duration: 1 hour and 45 min with one intermission.

Emiliana: A Revolution Cabaret
Written by Jessica Peña Torres
Directed by Mateo Hernandez

Now playing through August 29th, 2026
Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.
Streaming Performance: August 29 (English)
Special Performances: August 28 - ASL Interpreted

Ground Floor Theatre
979 Springdale Rd
Austin, TX 78702