Review: "La caída de Rafael Trujillo" Captures the End of an Era
La caída de Rafael Trujillo ( The Downfall of Rafael Trujillo ) Written by Carmen Rivera Directed by Cándido Tirado Presented by Teatro Círculo at the Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th Street, 3rd Floor, Manhattan, NYC April 14-30, 2023 José Cheo Oliveras. Photo by Israel Franco Müller In case anyone is unfamiliar with what sort of leader the title character of playwright Carmen Rivera's historical drama La caída de Rafael Trujillo ( The Downfall of Rafael Trujillo ) was, the production begins with some implied torture, followed shortly by Trujillo (José Cheo Oliveras) ordering the extrajudicial killing of a man who had written critically of Trujillo and his regime. Beginning in 1930, Trujillo ruled the Dominican Republic for just over three decades, both directly and through puppet presidents, and Rivera's play, presented by Teatro Círculo in Spanish with English overtitles, zeroes in on the final five, deftly compressing them into an engrossing view from within the dictator's in...