EDINBURGH 2023: PLAYING LATINX Q&A

BWW catches up with Guido García Lueches to chat about bringing Playing Latinx to the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about Playing Latinx.

Playing Latinx is a show about the Latino pool boy from Desperate Housewives. It’s also a show about Narcos, Manuel from Fawlty Towers, and Rishi Sunak’s immigration policy. It’s mainly about being Latin American in a country that has no idea what to do with us, and the inherent silliness of stereotypes.

Through more than questionable means (it is a show about self exploitation, after all) we’re here to help you connect with your emotional self, celebrate everything that makes you unique, and unleash your inner Latinx. No blending-in allowed.

What was the inspiration behind writing it?

My acting career in the UK is fairly ridiculous. When I first got here in 2014 I was surprised by how much I was getting asked to be ‘exotic.’ So, eager to please, I taught myself how to put on a Latin accent and started getting hired.

I cannot tell you the amount of drug lords I’ve auditioned for; I’ve played Fidel Castro in 2 different musicals! I’ve never been more Mexican than in my time in the UK (I’m actually Uruguayan, btw, so not Mexican at all), and the show is a riff on that experience. We started with a set of autobiographical poems I had written, and then built a whole seminar on How to be a Successful Latinx, which we of course make the audience take. I should warn you it’s not very politically correct.

What makes the presentation style so important?

The all South American team behind Playing Latinx (Mariana Aristizabal Pardo, Malena Arcucci & myself) come from a very specific tradition of political theatre, but also of clowning and silliness. So it was always front and centre for us that, as much as we're making a strong point about how migrants are treated in the UK, it was always through irreverence and laughter, and being as stupid as we possibly could. Being called stupid is high praise in our rehearsal room.

We also had a strong desire to involve the audience as much as possible. It’s a one-human show but I don’t want to be alone on stage, so the show ended up being a conversation with the audience.

Who would you like to come and see it?

Loads of different people. This is our love letter to Latinx people, and migrants in general, so hopefully they come and see themselves reflected in our weirdness. Our hope is that the show will resonate with anyone who has found themselves on the wrong end of a stereotype, or has found the need to exploit themselves for whatever reason.

But it's also for audiences who want to laugh at the absurdity of our systems & challenge the status quo.

I would say that if you’re married to the idea that the UK is faultless in how it treats the rest of the world, or if a joke at Winston Churchill’s expense is going to really offend you, maybe stay away. I really like my Churchill joke.

What would you like audiences to take away from it?

A great night out! We aim first and foremost to entertain, and if we can sneak in some of our activism in between the laughs, all the better. And if a single person that sees the show thinks twice before calling a Latinx person they know ‘Speedy Gonzalez,’ then our job here is done. But also, reparations for colonialism would be nice. Is that too much to hope from a theatre show?

Photo credit: Vicky Polack 

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