Father's Shadow / Sombra Del Padre
by Elvira Carrizal

Father's Shadow/Sombra del Padre, a Mexican family drama, maps the difficult journey of a young woman and her friends and family through a confusing legacy of pain, abuse and misunderstanding.

Yet it is not just a journey of sadness but also one of joy, insight and ultimately revelation.

The play takes place over a course of five years in a cluster of homes that forms a community of south Texas.

Like the border between Texas and Mexico in reality, the borders between these two places in the play are both incredibly rigid and strangely flexible.

Likewise, the border between "reality" and "dream" in Father's Shadow/Sombra del Padre is sometimes impenetrable, leaving the characters unable to escape, and sometimes almost immaterial, allowing the characters to confront those whith whom they feel they have lost touch emotionally or spiritually.

Area staging.

Approximate running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.