OCTOPUS IN ITS OWN INK Begins Hollywood Fringe Run June 1

Playwright Eduardo Vega remembers his father as a wonderful, warm and inspiring man, but one who also suffered with post-traumatic issues related to his incarceration and torture as a political dissident/insurgent of the Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo.

Throughout Eduardo's life, he would get just hints of what his father and other family members experienced, but never a clear picture. When his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Vega decided he needed to explore further as a writer to shed light on the struggles across Latin America and elsewhere that continue even today.

Vega and Tinderbox Ensemble are proud to present Vega's new work Octopus in Its Own Ink at the Hudson Theatre this June as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Octopus in Its Own Ink/Pulpo En Su Tinta is a powerful drama of intrigue and family in the pressure cooker of dictatorship, based on true events. As Don Mario, a diplomat fallen from favor, seeks to get his family out of the country that is descending into chaos, his eldest sons face torture, uncertainty and death while plotting guerilla action against the dictator that is coming to dinner the very next night. Caught at the center are the extended family relations--the female insurgent who seeks to lead, the young boy whose nightmares tell him more than anyone else, and the housekeeper whose love binds them together. The cultural role of food and dining comes to the fore when "Octopus in its Own Ink" is served at the fateful meal which brings the drama to its climax. A work of contemporary theatre employing poetry and magical realism, this new work is also an intense, fast-moving thriller, classical in scope.

"Like his brother and many of their generation, there was a lot my father chose not to describe of his experience in detail," said Vega, an L.A.-based playwright, theatre artist and Fringe veteran (Usually Haunted, Homeward). "As a playwright I hoped to see if I could get closer to understanding to the tensions of that time, the awful choices forced upon so many families who lost their loved ones to the police state, who fled the country they loved on pain of death, who struggled in silence in a world in which innocence was no protection from terror."

To help share his story, Vega, who is also directing the play, has brought on a large and experienced cast of 12 Latine actors. Unlike most Fringe shows that favor simple sets and costumes, Octopus also has a higher production value, and it clocks in at two and a half fast-paced hours.

To this point, Octopus in Its Own Ink has only had public readings in L.A., last in 2018 to rave audience reviews, so Vega is excited to share his work with the Fringe community, in the hopes of taking it to bigger stages in New York and elsewhere in the future.

What's most important to Vegas is to get this deeply personal work seen by as many people as possible to help bring attention to a very prevalent world issue of political oppression and human rights abuses. While his play is set in the Dominican Republic in the last days of the infamous Trujillo regime (1960), the plot touches on the painful stories of communities across Latin America and elsewhere (Armenia, Iran, Cambodia, Uganda, and so on) who've struggled between safety for their loved ones, and resistance to brutal regimes that torture and "disappear" their people. For Vega, sharing is important because most people don't know these stories.

"Truth be told, I might not have taken the project further than many drafts and a couple of readings, if it were not for a chance encounter I had with a young Dominican-American man," Vega said. "Like me he'd been born and raised in the U.S., though he is younger by a generation. When I mentioned some things about the history of our parents, including why so many Latines emigrated to the States in the fifties and sixties, he was familiar but also curious. His generation, I realized, had less information, were further cut off from the grim realities that drove our parents away from their homes and cities, from countries that many still love. For us to have more understanding, for us to have freer world, such stories need to be known. The stories of our parents and neighbors, repeated across many nations. The stories of struggle to keep families alive under the pressure of brutality and authoritarianism. The stories of valor in the face of overwhelming force, social manipulation and oppression that millions have experienced around the world."

OCTOPUS IN ITS OWN INK

Written and directed by Eduardo Vega

Produced by Tinderbox Ensemble

Octopus in Its Own Ink/Pulpo En Su Tinta is a powerful drama of intrigue and family in the pressure cooker of dictatorship, based on true events. As Don Mario, a diplomat fallen from favor, seeks to get his family out of the country that is descending into chaos, his eldest sons face torture, uncertainty and death while plotting guerilla action against the dictator that is coming to dinner the very next night. Caught at the center are the extended family relations--the female insurgent who seeks to lead, the young boy whose nightmares tell him more than anyone else, and the housekeeper whose love binds them together. The cultural role of food and dining comes to the fore when "Octopus in its Own Ink" is served at the fateful meal which brings the drama to its climax. A work of contemporary theatre employing poetry and magical realism, this new work is also an intense fast-moving thriller, classical in scope.

June 1 - 8:30 p.m. (preview)

June 3 - 2 p.m. (preview)

June 8 - 8:30 p.m.

June 9 - 5:30 p.m.

June 10 - 8:30 p.m.

June 16 - 8:30 p.m.

June 17 - 8:30 p.m.

Hudson Theatres (Backstage)

6539 Santa Monica Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90038

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