About Sabina Berman

Sabina Berman is Mexico’s leading playwright and is also a storyteller, essayist, film and theater director.  She is recognized as the most prolific, original, and daring playwright of her generation in the Spanish language.  Four times prize-winner of the National Playwriting Award in Mexico (Premio Nacional de Dramaturgia en México) and the Juan Ruiz de Alarcon Award (Premio Juan Ruiz de Alarcón), she has also won twice the National Journalism Award (Premio Nacional de Periodismo) (1999 and 2007).

Her best-known plays include the critically-acclaimed Between Pancho Villa and a Naked Woman, Moliere, and Freud Skating.  They each ran for over two years in Mexico City, and were produced in Latin America, Europe and the United States.

Born in 1955 to Eastern European Jews, Sabina grew up in Mexico City.  She studied Mexican literature and psychology at the Universidad Iberoamericana and she was trained as a theater person on stage.  In 1995, she was co-director of the film Between Pancho Villa and a Naked Woman, with Isabelle Tardan.  Recently, she wrote the film The History of Love for Alfonso Cuarón and Light for Alejandro González Iñarritu.  She also wrote and co-produced the film Backyard, which represented Mexico at the Oscars 2010.

In her book Sediciosas Seducciones, American critic Jacqueline Bixler writes that Sabina Berman’s work combines sex, power and words.  Her work deals mainly with the issue of diversity (human and animal) and its obstacle: the striving for domination, with its derivatives (authoritarianism, violence, and discrimination).  In her style some constants stand out: humor and irony, distrust of all official discourse, subversion, the need to go beyond both sexual and theatrical boundaries and the use of language itself.

Currently she is the host of the television show Sha la lá, a weekly TV series of interviews with artists, politicians, scientists and literary figures in Mexico, broadcasting on Televisión Azteca.  Her most recent novel Me (La mujer que buceó dentro del corazón del mundo – original title) has been published in 11 languages in over 33 countries.

Cayendo con Victoriano focuses on events that took place between October 1913 to April 1914, when Mrs. O’Shaughnessy lived in Mexico with her husband. The playwright links the power struggle between Huerta and O’Shaughnessy on one side, highlighting the differences in diplomacy between the two countries, and between Huerta and Diaz-Miron, on the other side, exposing the Mexican idiosyncrasy when dealing behind closed doors.

About Cayendo con Victoriano

Based on Edith O’Shaughnessy’s historical book, A Diplomat’s Wife in Mexico, the play takes us back to the Mexican Revolution, describing in an intimate way the complex relationship that has always existed between the United States and Mexico.  Nelson O’Shaughnessy, US Business Affairs Representative in Mexico during the presidency and dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta was sent by President Wilson to replace US ambassador Lane Wilson, who plotted along with Huerta to overthrow president elect Francisco I. Madero.  President Madero and Vice-president Pino-Suarez were forced to sign their resignation at the US Embassy, clearing Huerta’s path to become president.  Days later, Huerta ordered their assassination, marking the end of what is known as the tragic ten days, the bloodiest days of the Mexican Revolution.  Playwright Ortiz Monasterio also makes reference to the relationship that existed between Huerta and Salvador Diaz-Miron, prominent poet and director of El Imparcial, an influential newspaper of the time.  Diaz-Miron used his position to protect Huerta.  It is said that he became a congressman to push and protect Huerta’s agenda.

Cayendo con Victoriano focuses on events that took place between October 1913 to April 1914, when Mrs. O’Shaughnessy lived in Mexico with her husband.  The playwright links the power struggle between Huerta and O’Shaughnessy on one side, highlighting the differences in diplomacy between the two countries, and between Huerta and Diaz-Miron, on the other side, exposing the Mexican idiosyncrasy when dealing behind closed doors.

Awards and Nominations for Cayendo con Victoriano

2011 HOLA Award (Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors)
Best Lead Actor, Alfredo Huereca

2012 Latin ACE New York Award (Drama)
Best Actor, Alfredo Huereca
Best Supporting Actor, Raoul Breton

2012 Latin ACE Nominations
Best Production, Alfredo Huereca, Producer
Best Supporting Actress, Ana Veronica Muñoz
Best Supporting Actor, Bill Blechingberg

2012 Nominations from New York’s Artistas de Teatro Independiente (ATI)
Best Theater Production, Alfredo Huereca, Producer
Best Visiting Director, Luis Martin
Best Set, Alfredo Huereca, Producer
Best Actor, Alfredo Huereca
Best Supporting Actor, Raoul Breton
Best Supporting Actress, Ana Veronica Muñoz