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Quijada and Robinson researched a lesser-known Underground Railroad that led south to Mexico. After Mexico fought for its independence from Spain in 1821, the territory of Texas (formerly Mexico) was a contested site for several decades. From 1829, when slavery was abolished in Mexico, through 1865, the year of the 13th Amendment, over 4,000 (and up to 10,000) enslaved Black Americans made the arduous journey from the U.S. to Mexico, evading posses in the Texas territories looking for rewards and crossing the deadly Rio Grande, searching for freedom.<\/p>\n
As they rap in the opening number and closing reprise, \u201cWe didn\u2019t know this shit\u2026. The facts we never learned in history class.\u201d How can we ever move toward a more perfect union without this knowledge?<\/p>\n
In Mexodus, <\/em>they tell the intertwined stories of Henry and Carlos. Robinson plays Henry, a young, enslaved Black man who was ripped away from his mother during his childhood and forced to do hard labor, and who flees to Mexico after killing a slave owner in self-defense. Quijada plays Carlos, with a backstory less well known to most USians: he was a Mexican soldier who fought for and helped secure his country\u2019s independence from Spain, but lost everything \u2014 his family, his homestead, his livelihood \u2014 in the process, and is now an inexperienced tenant farmer working land owned by someone else and fearful of U.S. invasion. When Henry almost drowns crossing the Rio Grande, Carlos takes him in and they begrudgingly live together, until both a flood and Henry\u2019s fugitive status bring them closer than ever. \u201cTodos estamos juntas en esto, we\u2019re all in this together,\u201d Carlos explains.<\/p>\n In many ways, this is a standard two-hander in a bottleneck situation, but not as conceived and performed by Quijada and Robinson and ably directed by David Mendiz\u00e1bal.<\/p>\n Mexodus<\/em> is also an electrifying live-looped concert experience.<\/p>\n The deceptively simple stage setup \u2014 designed by Riw Rakkulchon \u2014 has a large barn door, a string of bare bulbs strung over the orchestra, cotton branches poking through wooden crates, and a variety of old-timey speakers, musical instruments, and audio equipment stacked at either end of the stage. Quijada and Robinson crisscross the stage, picking up and playing various instruments, recording a musical passage or vocal motif into microphones, and stomping on the sound-effect boards scattered across the floors to create and loop the music that they then sing and rap over.<\/p>\n Robinson plays standup bass, piano, keyboard, and trumpet, and sings with a powerful, crystalline voice. Quijada plays accordion, guitar, harmonica, and percussion, beatboxes, sings in a gruff bass-baritone and raps at a lightning pace in both English and Spanish, and remixes everything at a central soundboard, disguised as a wooden crate. Audio engineer Simon Briggs also deserves recognition for his sonic wizardry.<\/p>\n In an extended comic scene, we watch Carlos work on the farm, performing on different percussion instruments, and Henry occasionally joining in by banging on his tin coffee mug. During a threatening storm, Robinson plays the piano and sings his heart out in a moving gospel number while Quijada conjures up a dysphonic storm on his soundboard. And during the opening night showstopper \u201cHenry 2 Enrique,\u201d they teamed up to create a full-on concert experience, rapping together in English and Spanish, and bringing the audience to its feet<\/p>\n It\u2019s a high-stakes gamble to create their own score each evening, but they display a handful of aces, becoming their own full symphony and creating layered, complex tracks. The songs are the American dream of the melting pot, bringing together elements of both traditional and contemporary musical styles based in the U.S. and Mexico: Black spirituals and gospels, R&B harmonies, interpolations from hip-hop classics, Spanish classical guitar, and Mexican folk ballads, in addition to more traditional musical theater style ballads. All of this they perform with not only a technical mastery but an exuberance and joy.<\/p>\n The North Carolina-born DC transplant Robinson shares a personal story partway through the performance, noting that he is living the \u201cwildest impossibilities\u201d of his ancestors. Likewise, the Chicago-born and -based Salvadoran American Quijada shares his first memory of anti-Black racism.<\/p>\n These moments, along with their opening and closing numbers frame the musical as poly-temporal: it\u2019s exploring the past through the hopes and fears of contemporary Black and Latinx Americans. The legacy of slavery and the treatment of people entering the U.S. through Mexico are ongoing and urgent. In their final number, they warn that \u201cBlack and Brown bodies continue to be hunted\u2026 America forgot she was supposed to welcome all.\u201d<\/p>\n There are a few hiccups in Mexodus<\/em>: sometimes the recording of the loop (as fascinating as it is to watch) pauses the plot progression or even dialogue; the characters feel more archetypal than fleshed out; and the farewell between Carlos and Henry seems overlong as they say goodbye over three songs. But that does not take away from this innovative and impressive theatrical experience. Head to the theater early to watch the accompanying documentary film playing and to visit the theater\u2019s Indigenous Art Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yes, Mexodus<\/em> is deeply indebted to Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s Hamilton, <\/em>but it\u2019s all the more powerful for that. If Hamilton <\/em>leads to a hundred such musicals that sing to today\u2019s audiences while exploring U.S. history through a contemporary lens, offering a brave space for writers, actors, directors, and creatives from underrepresented backgrounds to tell our complex histories, and providing an education in civics, we will all benefit from this. Todos estamos juntas en esto.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Running time: 85 minutes with no intermission.<\/p>\n Mexodus <\/em><\/strong><\/a>plays through April 7, 2024, at Baltimore Center Stage, 700 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD.\u00a0For tickets ($39\u2013$74, with senior and student discounts available), call the box office at (410) 332-0033, or purchase them online.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The program for Mexodus<\/em> is online here.<\/a><\/p>\n Mexodus <\/em><\/a><\/strong>then plays from May 16 to June 9, 2024, presented by Mosaic Theater Company performing\u00a0in the Sprenger Theater at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE, Washington, DC. Purchase tickets ($42\u2013$70) online<\/strong> or from the Box Office at\u00a0<\/b>(202) 399-7993 x501 or boxoffice@atlasarts.org <\/span><\/a>from 11 AM\u20135 PM Monday through Friday, or two hours prior to a performance.<\/p>\n COVID Safety:\u00a0<\/strong>Baltimore Center Stage\u2019s current policy includes mask-optional performances on Thursdays, Saturday evenings, and Sunday matinees, and mask-required performances on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturday matinees. During those performances, masks may only be removed in designated eating and drinking areas. For more COVID-safety information, please visit\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Nygel-D.-Robinson-and-Brian-Quijada.-J-Fannon-Photography.jpg\")
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