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It is perhaps fitting, in this World Cup year, with Lionel Messi and the Argentinian squad battling to retain the trophy they won four years ago, that the Contemporary American Theater Festival offers us a different version of Argentina, one found nowhere near the sports pages. And one which with time runs the risk of disappearing altogether from our collective memory.
Like all the victims of Argentina’s military junta in the 1970’s, tens of thousands, who were all made to disappear without a trace. Compounding the brutality of the regime, the children of the Disappeared, as they are known, were often raised with no awareness of who their real parents were. This policy—perhaps inspired by Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco—has led to the widespread use of DNA testing to determine who your real parents were. The discovery process is gut-wrenching, but truthful.
With Christina Pumariega’s new play, ¡VOS!, we not only see the crimes of the past, but the difficulties they create for generations to come. Our story centers on Annie, a young American professional, born in Buenos Aires, who wants to have a baby. After nearly bankrupting herself with IVF treatments in America, Annie moves to the Palermo district in Buenos Aires where her mother once lived, and where treatments are more affordable. She is treated by Dr. Cossi, whose regimen seeks to address the whole person, not just the physiological symptoms. Cossi prescribes frequent walks, prayer, strange rituals (you’ll never look at the eggs in your fridge the same way again), anything and everything, in service of Annie’s quest for motherhood.
But Annie also has her DNA tested—far more routine in Argentina than here, and with surprising consequences. As Annie walks around her new city and sees memorial after memorial to the Disappeared, she begins to learn about Argentina’s dark past; a past she knew nothing about; her mother was mum about it—and for reasons which, again, will become clear as the play unfolds.
¡VOS! plays out in two times at once—present-day Buenos Aires and that same city during the troubled 1970’s. Pumariega switches routinely backwards and forwards in time, with the aid of skilled projection work designed by Kelly Colburn, as we see our two actors switch back and forth as well, taking on quite different characters—or, perhaps, characters they might have played had they lived in those times.
Francesca Santodomingo plays modern-day Annie, whose innocence and eagerness are in stark contrast to her turn as the reserved Sofia in the 1970’s. Sofia presents herself as a typical 1970’s student radical, but she harbors a secret agenda, as she falls in with Ana, herself a radical student and the trusted aide of one of the rebel professors at the University. As Dr. Cossi in the present day and as Ana from the 1970’s, Maggie Bofill provides us with a solid psychological anchor, one that cares fiercely for all around her, no matter the consequences. Together, Santodomingo and Bofill embody the challenges and contradictions of Argentina, both then and now.
As the 1970’s demonstrations kick in we see Sofia and Ana fall in love, but not without complications; and the play’s denouement—while not fully fleshed out, to my mind—leaves an indelible impression, a reminder of how difficult times, and despotic regimes, can distort us to become people we may not wish to be. Smoothing out the transitions between times and scenes, Sound designer Caroline Eng offers acoustic guitar passages that help us all to stay focused.
Playwright Christina Pumariega is determined that we never forget the Disappeared of those times, and recognize the emotional chaos that juntas routinely create. Her new play, ¡VOS!, reminds us how important it is to come to terms with our heritage, warts and all. It also is a timely reminder that those who seek refuge here in the USA, overwhelmingly, are fleeing conditions that no human being should have to endure.
Running time: 95 minutes, without intermission.
Production Photo: Francesca Santodomingo as Annie. Photo by Seth Freeman.
The 2026 Contemporary American Theater Festival will run through August 2, on the campus of Shepherd University in nearby Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
For tickets call 800-999-CATF (2283), or 681-240-CATF (2283) or visit:
www.catf.org.
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