Though not all Mexican culture counts Pancho Villa as a “peasant hero” of the Mexican Revolution, Villa’s legend has launched the revolutionary into a mythological construct. As such, he is absolutely perfect for inclusion in a play.
Between Pancho Villa and a Naked Woman, directed by Eva Zorrilla Tessler and featuring Lissa Staples, Robert Encila, Annabelle Nunez, Roberto Guajardo and Bryant Enriquez, was written and first produced in Mexico City in the early 1990s by Sabina Berman. Borderlands Theater is presenting this bit of political and social commentary, essentially about the myth of Pancho Villa in today’s Mexico, from February 18 to March 7 at Zuzi’s Theatre, 738 N. 5th Ave.
Gina lives in contemporary Mexico City and has trouble with romance. Her lover, Adrian, is a married journalist who is researching and writing a book on Pancho Villa. They are sharing this project, if only because Gina has agreed to type. Villa is the intrusive giver of advice to Adrian. And what does the oft-married, philanderer tell Adrian about getting a 21st century professional woman to acquiesce? Violence is always an option, he says.
Berman insists that subjugation holds a certain dangerous appeal and provocatively and slyly suggests that whether you’re an independent woman or a man who yearns to adopt another persona (in this case, Villa’s), it’s tempting to embrace the fantasy. Choosing between the bold political intellectual who won’t commit to her and a gentle, apolitical ‘new man’ who will, Gina’s dilemma mixes humor, myth, machismo, politics and sexual relationships.
