“Trans women exist, they resist and, above all, they live. And living, for many of them, has been a heroic task,” she says. Camila Schumacherauthor of the text of the new work Mother Fuck. In a country where politicians can To say that LGBTIQ people already enjoy ”full protection of the rights of all minorities”, reaffirming this remains a challenge.
Mother Fuck premieres this Thursday, April 9 at the Arts Theater of the University of Costa Rica, adapted and directed by Mara Toruño. The production is a co-production of the Teatro Universitario, the Transvida organization and the Costa Rican Narrative Gravity Dramatic Center.
The work—whose title plays with Brecht’s famous Mother Courage—emerges from an extensive work process with participants from Transvida, which serves women with education and general help. The piece is fiction, but a fiction anchored in the experiences narrated by them throughout a year of workshops.
Schumacher is the author of Daringa 2019 book that is also based on the stories of trans women and that won the National Literature Award in the short story branch. “Writing for the theater Mother Fuck It is not an aesthetic gesture: it is a political gesture. It is telling the country that fiction does not cover reality; It barely illuminates it. And that is possible in the theater,” writes the author in a message shared with Anchor.
“And what you see—when the light goes on—is uncomfortable. Because in Costa Rica, where we usually repeat that ‘nothing happens here’, too many things happen that we prefer not to name: family expulsions, short lives, medical records that seem like horror stories and identity documents that still discuss who is who,” explains the author.
‘Mother Carajo’ and trans realities
Mother Fuck It is a diptych with different characters played by Jimena Franco, Natalia Porras, María Bonilla, Zoraya Mañalinch, Bernardo Mena, Melissa Vargas and Luis Alejandro Alfaro.
In one of the stories, a woman returns to her mother’s house, already bedridden, who now needs constant care. “This story is very painful for both characters. Finding each other, understanding each other, being with a person who I have practically never been with in my life, how he touches me, how he sees me, with just his glance,” said actress Jimena Franco of her character in the program. Radio Universidad Breakfasts.
“They are two totally unknown people. And the worst thing is feeling useless and (the mother) having to call the person who one day she kicked out of her house because she can’t do it alone. There is a lot of resentment, but also love, in the end,” reflects the interpreter.
In Costa Rica, many trans people continue to face difficulties to access decent employment, education and health services, in contexts where discrimination usually affects or severs family ties, or in certain cases, pushes some women into sex work.
But the work does not aim to just tell what happens, but to give body, voice and complexity to the characters who, inspired by real lives, dialogue on stage.
“Write Mother Fuck for the scene is to dispute the story: to go from caricature to complexity, from gossip to biography, from prejudice to empathy. It is also an act of memory. Each function is a living file that says: here they were, here they are, here they will continue. And yes, there is humor in this resistance, because laughing is also surviving,” Schumacher adds.
The play will be on display on April 9, 10, 11 at 7 pm and April 12 at 6 pm Tickets are worth ₡7,000 for the general public and ₡4,000 for students with a license and seniors.
