Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, is currently presenting the world premiere of the new play ¡VOS!, written by and starring Christina Pumariega. The show, which also stars Alexandra Silber, follows the character of Annie (Pumariega) as she heads home to Buenos Aires. She hasn’t been to the city in a long time, but she has arrived to undergo IVF treatments with a famous doctor (Silber). What she finds along the way is more than she expected: Annie learns of the stories of two other women who faced uncertainty amidst Argentina’s so-called Dirty War, according to press notes.
Performances of ¡VOS! continue through Sunday, April 27, at Two River’s Marion Huber Theater. The runtime is 100 minutes with no intermission.
Pumariega developed the show at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, and her work on the play earned her the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Her previously written works include the plays Joan Dark, Harbor Girls and Her Math Play. Pumariega’s work has been developed by a wide variety of theater companies, including Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, the New Harmony Project, the Lark, New Georges, Hartford Stage Company and Ammunition Theatre Company, according to her official biography.
Recently Pumariega exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox and opened up further about what audiences can expect from ¡VOS! Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What initially inspired you to create this play?
After a costly, taxing infertility journey, I amassed a huge amount of debt. Suddenly living in the two cities I worked — Los Angeles and New York — was just untenable. My husband and I lived nomadically for a year, working online. Argentina was not only affordable, but as a Cuban-American, I always nurtured a fascination with Che and the School of the Americas. I’d never been to that corner of the world and wanted desperately to go.
The city of Buenos Aires felt — haunted. As if there were people I couldn’t see walking alongside us on the tiled streets. This energy was everywhere — our neighborhood of Palermo to Tigre to Patagonia. Argentinos themselves are beautiful and political and impossibly funny. And Porteño Spanish put my non-native Spanish under immediate scrutiny. I had to listen differently, speak differently and learn this fascinating place on its own terms. We stayed two months, and it didn’t skim the surface.
Two weeks before we left, I sat down at a Palermo café, and I wrote ¡VOS! My fingers couldn’t keep up: The story came pouring out of me. Hours after I wrote “End of Play,” we flew home.
Did you have to conduct any research to better understand the so-called Dirty War?
Oh yes. I visited ESMA, the largest clandestine torture center in Argentina during the Dirty War. There you witness how historians and survivors have worked to center the stories of the Disappeared. I read many books and articles about and related to the time, including Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano; the writings of scholars Brenda Werth and Diana Taylor; plays by Roberto Cossa, Griselda Gambaro, Chilean writer Guillermo Calderón; and the performance art of Lola Arias. I also conducted interviews with people both in Argentina and first- and second-generation Argentinian-Americans here in the States. That said, for me the research is always ongoing.
Why does it feel necessary and important to tell this story now in 2025?
While the Dirty War began in 1974, the inception of this period of state terrorism struck me as not terribly different from the political and ideological pendulum swings we are currently experiencing in North America. I’m interested in how, across time and space, our beliefs incite us to action, both in destructive and progressive ways. And I’m interested in how we can truly hear one another through the noise.
What’s it like to perform in a piece you’ve written?
Surreal. Miraculous. And right on time. I wanted to create a play for two Latinas and overload them with action they rarely get to explore. In the States we have very narrow ideas of how Latinas should function on stage and screen: often written simply to react to a cis man’s journey. I decided that in ¡VOS!, Latinas are the ones who act.
To sink my teeth into a hard, fast, intricate play night after night truly feels like an athletic feat. In countless moments I behold my scene partner, the luminous Alexandra Silber, in awe. But I can never get too distracted because I get to throw the ball right back to her! It’s thrilling, to be used up. I dare more playwrights to trust us to do it.
Do you feel that writing more plays is the direction you’ll be moving in with your career?
After having worked for a decade as an actor, I started writing for television. I brought a sharp focus on character to screenwriting, and television writing taught me plot.
Then I wrote my first play. That was right before the pandemic hit. ¡VOS! is my fourth. I’ve since written two more, with several others clamoring to get out. I promised myself I’d finish our run of ¡VOS! before answering the call of a new one.
As a storyteller of myriad forms, playwriting is just a natural extension of the way I create.
What’s it like working with Two River Theater?
It’s a dream come true. The whole staff — from the artistic departments to education and marketing to company management — are enormously collaborative. Not to mention wholly welcoming of a new mom and her little family flying across the country to make theater for two months. Under the kind, intrepid leadership of Justin Waldman, I’ve felt empowered to make bold choices in the rehearsal room while feeling supported off the clock. And now that we’re into our run, I love coming to know our wonderful audiences! I hope to make much more magic in Red Bank. My toddler’s obsessed with this beautiful city and frankly, so am I.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
¡VOS!, written by and starring Christina Pumariega, continues through Sunday, April 27, at Two River Theater’s Marion Huber Theater. Click here for more information and tickets.