Hispanic culture on show in Rozelle

Hispanic Artistic Expression’s latest offering Conversations with Mother looks to share Hispanic culture through the arts.

The comedy-drama, performed in Spanish with English subtitles, explores themes such as loneliness, isolation and ageing.

Angela Rosero, co-founder of the Hispanic Artistic Expression theatre group based in Rozelle, said Conversations with Mother aims ensure audiences think about relationships with their family.

“We really want people to know what’s going on onstage and to feel the expressions through the language at same the time,” said Ms Rosero, who is producer of the play.

The play explores the relationship dynamic of a mother with her 41-year-old son Jorge. After encountering financial difficulty, Jorge wants to sell the apartment in which his mother lives and move her to a nursing home.

Comedy and tragedy are intertwined when his 72-year-old mother refuses to move out of the apartment.

“The play is from South America, so the role of the mother is very important,” said actress Zulema Cappielli, 65, who plays Jorge’s mother.

“When parents get older it’s a struggle for children to cope so [the children] think they are better off in a nursing home. I think nursing homes are for people that can’t do anything else. But in my character, she is full of life and she doesn’t want to go to a nursing home.”

Director and actor Alexander Palacio highlighted family interplay as the central theme of the show.

“We would like to make people think about the importance of the family,” said actor/director Alexander Palacio, 40, who plays Jorge. “Because [even] when you are with your family sometimes you ‘forget’ them, for other things.”

Ms Cappielli said the play’s themes are easily identifiable to audiences in Australia.

“I think it’s not difficult to put this character in an Australian context. It’s not a foreign character,” she said.

Written by Santiago Carlos Oves and adapted by Argentinian playwright Jordi Galcerán Ferrer, Conversations with Mother is the second of three plays scheduled to run by Hispanic Artistic Expression this year.

It is also the first year the not-for-profit organisation will feature a full program, performed at the La Sala theatres in Rozelle. Conversations with Mother starts on August 2 and will run for a month.