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HAGUE

A LIVE Biennial of Performance Art
presentation. At the Chan Centre for
the Performing Arts on Saturday,
October 22
^ ^ Mexican performance artist
^ | r Astrid Hadad wowed, shocked,
and surprised a Chan Centre audience Saturday night with sex
toy-adorned costumes, dynamic
vocals, and her ability to politicize
anything—even the Lord's Prayer.
"Dear Uncle Sam.. ..give us this day
our daily McDonald's, forgive the
Cubans and the Iraqis as we forgive
the Marines, and liberate us from
the Japanese businessmen." She
sang to a packed house at the UBC
locale with the energy and excitement of the Energizer bunny on a
mescal-fuelled rampage.
Her number entitled "La Muerte
Chiquita" ("The Little Death"—
which happens to be a Spanish
euphemism for "orgasm") had her
lying in a vertical bed dressed in
black lingerie, rollicking about
seductively as she sang, making it
seem as if the audience was peeping in on her from the ceiling. But
if that sounds racy, it wasn't the
topper. Later in the show, she came
out in a red, touristy sombrero featuring a vibrating hand that waved
constantly as she walked. "By the
way, what you think this is, it is,"
she confirmed for curious audience members. "This hand is for
solitude, for lonely nights... And it
has three speeds!"
The cabaret was innovative,
unique, and highly enjoyable in its
half-English, half-Spanish format.
Hadad made light of her broken
English by frequently asking the
audience's ample Spanish-speaking
contingent, "Como se dice?" ("How
do you say it?"), and then giggling
wholeheartedly with the crowd,
"You understand anyway, right?"
Regardless, her messages came
across in both languages, providing a look at some of Mexico's social
and political issues, especially the
situation for women there. Using
a combination of traditional folkloric images (icons of the Virgin of
Guadalupe, microcosmic models
of Mayan ruins, and life-size recreations of Diego Rivera paintings)
in conjunction with more politically
charged concepts (her Statue of Liberty costume features guns hanging
around its shoulders), Hadad energetically extended a critical view
of Mexico's gender-related dynamics. She challenged stereotypes of
the country, all the while honouring and paying tribute to its music
and culture, and acknowledging its
relationship with the States. In one
revenge-inspired number, Hadad
appeared on-stage in head-to-toe
black leather and explained, "This
is a traditional Mexican folkloric
costume, but just in a leather style—
you know, the world-market influence, globalization." It looked more
like S&M meets Tonto meets a
mid-'80s Madonna. She held a large
gutting knife in one hand, which
she licked on occasion while smirking at the audience, and sang about
what she would do to her lover, who
had clearly done her wrong. Come
to think of it, she tended to lick a
lot of things, including the long,
slender conical end of a large paper
ice-cream cone she sported during a
Carmen Miranda-style rumba.
Hadad's impeccable showmanship and talents, combined with
an unbelievably tight band—Los
Tarzanes' piano riffs alone were
enough to send music lovers
swooning—made for world-class
quality. The Mexican artist proved
even the most political material
can be fun, no matter what language you speak.
> HEATHER NEALE