theater

You see, there's this Colombian farmer named Polonio. And he's totally addicted to telenovelas. You know, those Latin American soap operas? Anyway, the craziest things happen to him. First, American-administered pesticides have wiped out his crops. Poor and desperate, he decides to pick up and move to the big city, Bogata, to try to make it as a soap star. Awesome, right? Well, not so much. See, he ends up taking a job as a doorman at a fancy high-rise apartment building called Edificio Nuevo Mundo. He can't help but snoop on the comings and goings of the building's tenants, whose lives are just nuts, with all sorts of seduction, revenge and—gasp!—murder! It's kind of like his life and the tenants' lives have totally become like the soap operas he watches. I know, weird, right?

So goes ¡El Conquistador!, the finished version of what the always-surprising Thaddeus Phillips workshopped at the Live Arts festival in 2004. Phillips—he of King Lear out of a suitcase and Tempest in a kiddie pool—is boundlessly inventive. His clever use of props is never gimmicky, and his comic timing and physical dexterity are superb. His work is often international (The Earth's Sharp Edge, Lost Soles), or literary (Red-Eye to Havre de Grace, about the last days of Edgar Allan Poe) in theme. Now he adds technological finesse to the mix, complete with TV screens and a rotating stage. His shows are challenging yet accessible, poignant yet charming. ¡El Conquistador!—performed primarily in Spanish (don't sweat it, there are English subtitles) and yet framed around the pop culture of telenovelas—is no exception. Phillips never lets you off easy. But that's not to say he won't let you have a little fun along the way.