←Recommendations of The Hall of Final Ruin

This playwright is a wordsmith, and her world-building is enchanting, memorable like the poetic works of Caridad Svich and Epic plays of Brecht. The madrina character, La Tules is as riveting and complex as Mother Courage or Prior Walter. The interludes of magic realism are a lot of fun. You'd be a fool if you don't read this. You're a greater fool if you don't read this and you're a director or artistic director. Consider this for your season or, at least, pass it to someone else!

The best humor develops not from setups and punchlines, but organically, from character. The deeply drawn, richly developed characters in this play start fast with the character-driven humor and never stop. This one deserves a professional production. Wonderfully engaging, funny, historically educating--an absolute delight.

The Hall of Final Ruin is a wickedly funny trip into Santa Fe, New Mexico during the mid-1800s. The setting of the play is rife with miners, competing armies, pistols, and especially gambling. And the most revered gambler of all is La Tules, our sharp witted protagonist. But Death hangs over La Tules and the stakes are high, for she must prove herself worthy of making the trip through Purgatory with Dona Sebastiana, the puller of the cart to the underworld. An incredible play with strong roles for women and an attention to detail that is second to none!

The Hall of Final Ruin is an exquisite, intelligent, and deeply original play that combines history and magical realism to thrilling effect. The world of this play exists at the crossroads of many cultures--Hispanic and white, Catholic and Protestant, local and foreign, living and dead--and McBurnette-Andronicos brings it to vivid life with her layered dialogue and characterization. The ongoing struggles of survival and one-upmanship La Tules faces against her own daughters and even death itself make for consistently engaging plotlines, and the play's good humor girds it with warm humanity under the specter of change and mortality. Highly recommended.

The Americans are coming, the Mexicans are leaving, and Death is patiently waiting….
The Hall of Final Ruin is ripe with theatrical atmosphere. From the opening, when Doña Sebastiana hauls her death cart onstage, the stacks are high, and the audience is perched on the edge of their seats. The pace is quick; the dialogue, both English and Spanish, sizzles. With wicked humor, magical realism, and fierce female characters, the play is at once stylized and historical, with resonance for today’s audiences. Explorations of female identity, religion/morality, and colonialism, as Death hovers. Highly recommended.