Tera Nova Zarra: Press

THE PORTLAND MERCURY

Acrobats play struggling bugs in the New York City barrio in A Suicide Note from a Cockroach…


(photo by Amy Swanson)

JANE CARLEN - THE PORTLAND MERCURY

"A Suicide Note from a Cockroach" begins with a cockroach invasion. A half-dozen trained acrobats scuttle around the stage and up into the seats. An actor in workman's uniform jumps on the lap of an older man sitting in front of me, mumbles a few non-words in a Spanish accent, and keeps going. Their procession leads back to the stage for a show of flea circus-esque gymnastics, accompanied by horn- and drum-driven music. My attention has been snatched and I won't have it back for an hour. This is one of the liveliest, most original, imaginative, and hilarious shows I've seen in a long time.

SASHA BURCHUK - PDX PIPELINE
A Suicide Note From a Cockroach (Imago)

Based on Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri’s eponymous work, Carlos Alexis Cruz’s play A Suicide Note From a Cockroach is a witty circus of a soap opera about life in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of New York.

Pedro has been married six times to six dead women. His first wife was a kleptomaniac who dropped dead. His second wife was a demonic German woman who walked off playing a kazoo and then died. His third wife was an acrobat hooker who got shot. The fourth was always sick; she wanted him to sell his organs on the black market so she could have surgery. The fifth wife was some kind of revolutionary guerilla who made him do drills in their living room. She was so paranoid that one day, convinced that there were assassins stalking her, she stabbed herself in the stomach. After she died, Pedro swore he would never marry again…but then he met Kimberly, who died on their wedding day.

All of this would make for a pretty grim play if it weren’t for the fact that the cast is made up of acrobats from Portland’s Do Jump! troupe. The effect is a darkly humorous charade of handsprings and captivating social satire.

BOB HICKS - THE OREGONIAN

Theatrical realism is getting pummeled within an inch of its life at Imago Theatre, where the boldly energetic troupe Pelu Theatre is taking audiences on a swift fantasy-fueled ride called “A Suicide Note From a Cockroach …”


(photo by Drew Foster)

MARTY HUGHLEY - THE OREGONIAN

Cruz calls the show a dark-humored rant about the cultural limbo of Latino immigrants. It's full of music, acrobatics and aerial routines. Snatches of Spanglish dialogue help make the story easy to follow, but it's meant primarily as something to be seen, with the drama in its themes of exile and existential struggle heightened through the fantastical vocabulary of the circus. As Cruz puts it: "What can you do to bring people to the edge of their seats while you're telling the story?"