Carmen Aguirre by Emily Cooper for Anywhere But Here.
Carmen Aguirre wants to take you on a journey, one that has been on her mind and in her dreams for 30 years.
Anywhere But Here, presented by Electric Company Theatre, is Aguirre’s first PuSh Festival production in 15 years. The play follows a Chilean refugee family as they make their way from Canada back to the country that expelled them. Travelling by convertible, at the US-Mexico border, the family is confronted by the current 2020 wall along that border.
Throughout their journey they meet different characters from different eras (1850s, 1970s, 1990s and present day), while still in their own 1979 reality.
Hailed as a psycho-social-spiritual-physical journey, Anywhere But Here is what Aguirre enthusiastically calls, “a Latinx extravaganza,” featuring a mostly-all Latinx cast, and crew including the director and designer. Anywhere But Here also features rap pieces co-written exclusively for the production by Juno Award-winning hip hop artist Shad and Aguirre herself.
“The reason we describe this play as a psycho-social-spiritual-physical is because we are trying to representation the inner turmoil of exile which takes place on all of those planes. And the way that we are trying to represent that is with this convergence of characters who are experiencing their own exiles and who converge and bash into each other,” explains Aguirre.
“The play uses magic realism tropes; that is to say there are different eras and different spaces that happen simultaneously.”
While this play feels strikingly relevant, given the influx of terror currently happening at the US-Mexico border, for Aguirre it’s important to acknowledge that turmoil at the border is not a new or fleeting issue.
“I don’t write issue or message plays. This play has actually been in my head for 30 years because it’s based on a series of dreams that I had when I was in theatre school 30 years ago and I was the only Latina person in the entire school and one of only three students of colour in the entire school,” she says.
“I had a series of very, very vivid dreams at that time that had to do with cultural identity and what that was. I wrote them down, and they always lived in my head, and I knew I wanted those dreams to be a play and that was the jumping point for Anywhere But Here. Ironically or not, because of course it is very timely. This story has been true for a very long time, and will probably continue to be timely and true for many years to come.”
According to the media release, the stellar cast of Anywhere But Here is a borderless group comprised of Augusto Bitter, Alen Dominguez, Alexandra Lainfiesta, Shawn Lall, Nadeem Phillip, Christine Quintana, Michelle Rios, AJ Simmons, and Manuela Sosa. All of these gifted actors have a direct connection to immigration as first- or second-generation immigrants to Canada with roots in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, El Salvador, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and Pakistan.
“This play, like I said, has been in my brain for about 30 years. It’s a culmination of that and we are very proud because it’s the first time in Canadian theatre history that a Latinx play of this size receives its world premiere on a Canadian mainstage, so for us it’s a big celebration,” says Aguirre.
“All the plays that I write are unabashedly left wing as opposed to liberal, and they are also unabashedly feminist, because that’s what I am.”
Electric Company Theatre presents Anywhere But Here at the PuSh Festival, February 4–15, 2020 at the Vancouver Playhouse. Tickets and information here.
Brittany Tiplady is a writer, editor, former ballet teacher, and the co-founder of Loose Lips Magazine. She loves the indoors, fast wifi, collecting maps, and a generous glass of red wine. She’s a self-proclaimed wizard of time management and a notorious loud talker with a penchant for all things Internet and pop culture.
