Latin American playwright Octavio Solis wrote his play Lydia in San Francisco but drew on his childhood experiences growing up in El Paso, Texas, to furnish material for the plot. Lydia (first performed in 2008) follows the life of a Mexican American family who have moved to El Paso in pursuit of the "American Dream." The family—comprising the father (Claudio), the mother (Rosa), and three children (Ceci, Rene, and Misha)—hire a maid, Lydia, who is an illegal immigrant. She improves the family's life immediately with her practical household help, but also with the emotional support she provides, particularly for Ceci—the family's oldest daughter, who has been in a car accident and is unable to talk coherently.
Lydia is naturally attuned to Ceci, and the play reaches a climax when the family's cousin Alvaro publicly admits his homosexual love for Rene. Rene (having surreptitiously watched in hiding from the living room) confesses in turn that Lydia slept with the family's father, Claudio. Lydia responds by translating Ceci's story about how the car accident (in which Ceci was injured) took place: Ceci had been hiding in the backseat of a car in which Rene (her older brother) and Alvaro (her cousin, with whom Ceci had also been in love) were making love. After the event, she attacked her brother as he was driving, which caused the car to crash into a tree.
After this revelation, Rene leaves home for the duration of the play, and Rosa demands that Lydia, despite her exclusively good intentions for the family, be deported.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
What is the climax and the resolution of the play Lydia?
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