Last night we attended another expat community theater performance with A.C.T. Theater here in Cuenca. The show was “Talking With…” and consisted of monologues by 11 women, each with a completely independent story.  Each woman was in crisis in her life, and — to be honest — I expected a bit of a dark downer theater experience.  Instead, these women each brought humor to their personal crisis moments of their life.  There were definitely moments to be considered deeply, but the presentation kept the audience laughing… allowing the deeper thoughts to subtly intrude, while enjoying the antics of each actress.

Each gringa actress presented a wildly different woman in crisis.  They varied from a bored housewife escaping to Oz while doing routine housework (my personal favorite), to a woman 23 hours in labor for a child already expected to be “challenged,” to a homeless woman dreaming of living in McDonald’s (another favorite of mine), to a snake charmer concerned with her loss of faith in gawd, and a host of others too numerous to mention here.

The cast originally expected to give a single performance, but the (English-speaking) expat audience wanted more, so a second performance was created, which we managed to get tickets for.  The first performance was totally sold out, and the second was nearly so.  Next time you hear of an ACT performance, be sure to jump at the chance for tickets, as we have been awed by how much new creative talent there is in Cuenca.  We have been to all their shows so far, and can attest that even those that seem “dark and foreboding” in the initial description are interesting, and yes, fun. Kudos to Deana Culp, the director, and the entire expat cast.