La Jornada: The play The Weight of Ants dramatizes adolescent uncertainty

The Canadian playwright David Paquet looks at young people from discomfort: where irony covers fear, laughter borders on violence and growing up no longer sounds like a promise.

In The weight of the ants, Adolescents look at adults as figures too distant to answer their questions about the future, school, the ecological crisis and emotional exhaustion.

The play, translated by Boris Schoemann, directed by Angélica Rogel and produced by Teatro UNAM together with the company Los Endebles, will premiere today at the Juan Ruiz de Alarcón theater of the University Cultural Center (CCU).

In interview with The Day, Angélica Rogel pointed out that the text has “a universal adolescent pulse,” because it recovers that moment in which someone leaves childhood, although it still retains its physical and mental agitation. “You start to wonder what’s going to happen to you when you reach that age, if you ever reach that age. You look at adults and none of that echoes what you think or what you feel.”

Jeanne and Olivier are two teenagers unable to recognize themselves in the environment they inhabit. She lives with a neurodivergence; He carries a permanent fear of the future of the Earth. School elections open up a minimal possibility for both of them to confront what surrounds them.

On stage, Germán Bracco, Mariana López-Dávila, Mahalat Sánchez and Boris Schoemann give life to more than 20 characters, accompanied by live music by Yayo Villegas.

“The writing itself proposes rhythm. With very small elements you can go from one character to another and trust the audience’s imagination,” Rogel commented on the dramaturgical structure proposed by David Paquet.

The Canadian playwright avoids portraying youth from stereotypes. “They are not caricatures. They are complex people. He is afraid of living and so is she.” The stage creator also revealed that she discovered a neurodivergence in adulthood. “Maybe if I had met her before I would have understood many things about what was around me.”

The ecological crisis appears from humor, although without leaving its painful zone. Paquet, Rogel noted, “makes fun of ourselves as people,” because the disaster does not come from nowhere. “Those who caused this are the people themselves, and the solution should also appear from there.”

The strength of the story comes from that combination of satire and emotional wound. “Life, even in the most painful moments, has some comedy.” This view also extends to human ties and the possibility of building community from minimal gestures. “If we understand each other more as humanity, maybe we can do something.”

The production brings together young performers with figures with a long history in Los Endebles, such as Mahalat Sánchez and Boris Schoemann. The generational crossing allowed us to broaden our view of the text and open a creative dialogue from different experiences.

The visual aesthetic took references from comics and a punk sensibility. The work of Félix Arroyo, Ana Luisa Gama and Érick George outlines a chaotic and playful school universe, accompanied by electronic music performed live.

Much of the costumes and objects used come from recycled materials from the Teatro UNAM warehouses. For the director, this decision also responds to the environmental perspective of the work: “why generate a production from disposable materials if we are talking about an ecological crisis?”

The first reading of the text made her laugh and then left her moved. “I would like people to look more at those around them and ask themselves why someone is hostile or why they react the way they do.”

The image of ants runs through the story: tiny creatures capable of collectively carrying an immense weight. “They are small and easy to crush, but they weigh much more than all of humanity. Small actions can be more powerful than we imagine.”

The weight of the ants will have a season until July 4, except June 11 and 18, and from August 8 to 29 at the Juan Ruiz de Alarcón theater of the University Cultural Center (Insurgentes Sur 3000), with performances on Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m. The ticket costs 150 pesos.