Mojada NYC Reviews and Tickets

77%

(72 Reviews)

Positive

82%

Mixed

14%

Negative

Members say

Relevant, Absorbing, Great acting, Intense, Thought-provoking

About the Show

MacArthur Genius Award-winning playwright Luis Alfaro returns to The Public with the New York premiere of his stirring drama about love, immigration, and sacrifice, inspired by the Ancient Greek story of Medea.

Helmed by Chay Yew ("Oedipus El Rey"), this play combines ancient storytelling with the most pressing issues facing our country today, following a young Mexican mother who gives up everything to bring her son to America, only to find America demands even more. With poetry, humor, and heart, "Mojada" is a bold new telling of a story as old as tragedy itself.

Member Reviews (72)

Contrived, Indulgent, Thought-provoking, Creative, Absorbing

See it if Undocumented immigrant family lives ancient Greek tragedy. I enjoyed the creativity, and the punishment meted out for transgression.

Don't see it if Realistic tragedy of desert crossing doesn't mix well with Greek tragedy. Which mindset are we in? As a result, the play feels contrived.

Thought-provoking, Contrived, Absorbing, Timely

See it if you want to see a Latinx tragedy, part horrific account of immigrant exploitation, part melodramatic story of avarice, betrayal & filicide.

Don't see it if u expect an epic tragedy on the scale of Euripedes' Medea, on which Alfaro strains to mirror his modern cautionary tale; u seek lite fare.

Critic Reviews (14)

"Review: A Mexican Medea Heads to New York in ‘Mojada.’ In this retelling of Euripides’ tragedy of an abandoned lover, the heroine is a shy seamstress in seclusion in the Queens neighborhood of Corona."
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★★★ "The world outside the Public Theater is a brutal but effective collaborator in Luis Alfaro’s 'Mojada': As we sit, watching his modernization of Euripides’ Medea, the news whispers additional horrors in our ears..."
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"Morals and Monologues in 'The Rolling Stone' and 'Mojada.' New plays by Chris Urch and Luis Alfaro center on a gay man in Uganda and a Mexican immigrant in Queens, each facing dangers."
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"Playwright Luis Alfaro, whose Latinx-themed adaptations of Greek tragedies include 'Electricidad' and 'Oedipus El Rey,' puts a modern-day spin on Euripides' 'Medea' in his latest work receiving its New York City premiere."
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"Medea Crosses the Border and Settles in Queens in 'Mojada.' Playwright Luis Alfaro returns to New York with another modern take on a Greek tragedy."
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"Luis Alfaro's 'MOJADA' Adapts An Ancient Text Into A Contemporary Refugee Story"
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"Alfaro's view of the original material proves to be more of a distorting lens…As the horrifying revelations of the last week have shown, the problems of illegal immigrants are enough for the most harrowing of dramas; there's no need to pile on plot twists involving predatory lady contractors."
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"Playwright Luis Alfaro's Mojada, opening tonight at the Public Theater, reshapes the ancient tale of Medea into a drumbeating cry for social justice on behalf of refugee immigrants."
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★★ "'Medea Remade as a Sorrowful Stranger in a Strange Land.' The playwright's version of this classic story lacks the sense of gravitas and grandeur that should elevate it."
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★★★ "'A Medea in the Barrio.' Luis Alfaro puts a modern, vital and lyrically passionate Latin twist on the classic Greek tragedy."
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"Each generation reinterprets the Greek myths and plays to fulfill its own needs. Luis Alfaro's 'Mojada' could not be more timely or more relevant to the Latinx immigrant experience at the same time as being faithful to the original story in contemporary terms."
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"A warmly vital gift from the beginning...All of Luis Alfaro's characters are Latinx, and he offers deep contrasts between the ways that different newcomers, even within the same family, make sense of their new home and their suddenly shared identities."
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"As directed with a soulful presence by Chay Yew, the husband's fantastical dream of riches and security in the United States of America is 'plump and full of possibilities,' and even when the clumsiness of a few incidental characters draw us out of the desperation and pain, the trials imposed are deadly and real."
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"Sometimes clever in the ways in which it transposes the specifics of Euripides' story and characters; sometimes the contemporary parallels feel forced. But the main strength of "Mojada" is in presenting the details of the experience of the 21st century exile in scrupulous and credible detail."
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