Mi Madre y el Dinero

Josefina Orlaineta was just a child when she started working. Over the following 60 years, she worked more than 40 jobs. Josefina is the mother of theatre practitioner Anacarsis Ramos. The family lived in Campeche, one of the poorest states in Mexico. The mother stayed behind when her son escaped the stifling hometown. In Mexico City, he pursued a life in theatre and fully embraced his identity as a gay man. Their paths were separated for a decade.

In Mi Madre y el Dinero, the pair recounts the mother’s working life and her complicated relationship with money. In this documentary performance, Josefina’s irresistible sense of fun as a storyteller is evident as she shares pro tips on selling techniques and survival. All the while, she stuffs sausages – as though filling the scenes with memories. Investigating the precariousness of the theatre business or poking fun at European penchant for pronouncing on other continents’ wretchedness are here but comic sidebars.

The work gently tackles the shame and stigma of poverty and class. It addresses the vulnerability of the self-employed, be they artists or street hawkers, and considers the ethics of retelling another’s life story. Can theatre help us focus a gentler gaze upon ourselves?

Josefina Orlaineta succeeds as an actor, just as she succeeded in her other jobs. Her innate charisma lends Mi Madre y el Dinero gravitas to complement the work’s astuteness and humour.