ARTURO SORIA
ARTURO SORIA
NI MI MADRE
2022 OBIE AWARDS
[WINNER] Best Performance
2022 OUTER CIRCLE CRITICS AWARDS
Outstanding Solo Performance Nominee
2022 DRAMA LEAGUE AWARDS
Distinguished Performance Nominee
2022 DRAMA DESK AWARDS
Outstanding Solo Performance Nominee
Inspirited with the tradition of Umbanda ritual, the music of Gloria Estefan, Cher, and Maria Bethânia, Ni Mi Madre invites audiences into the tumultuous relationship between a larger-than-life Brazilian woman, Bete, and her queer son. Ni Mi Madre explores the intersection between queerness and Latinidad, while laying bare the secrets, memories, fears, and celebrations of being an immigrant and first-generation American. Directed by Rattlestick’s Directing Fellow, Danilo Gambini and partnering with community organizations Sol Project and Group.BR this is a world-premiere production of this solo show for this accomplished actor and first-time writer, and the director’s first professional production in the U.S.
[2021] World Premiere - Rattlestick Theater, NYC
[2015] Winner of the Luso-American Scholarship, DisQuiet International Literary Program
NEW YORK TIMES
CRITIC’S PICK
"Arturo Luís Soria’s autobiographical solo show “Ni Mi Madre” directed by Danilo Gambini at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in Manhattan, is remarkably unconventional… What marks this play as extraordinary in these knee-jerk antagonistic times is its ease with emotional contradiction and discomfort, its willingness to let filial affection persist despite a cleareyed acknowledgment of parental damage done.
Ni Mi Madre” is an aching heart wrapped in laughter and a long white dress — an offering of understanding and forgiveness, presented on the altar of bruised inheritance."
-Laura Collins-Hughes
NEW YORKER
"It’s a lampoon, a tribute, and reckoning all in one.”
-Rollo Romig
THEATER MANIA
"An explosively energetic performer, Soria manages to capture the unique mania of the American immigrant experience, a journey that leaves little room for regret or backpedaling.
The most delightful thing about Ni Mi Madre is hearing the unvarnished voice of one working-class immigrant infiltrate the American theater, dominated as it is by bourgeois manners and attitudes.”
-Zachary Stewart
THEATERLY
"His perfect timing is matched by a performance that seductively straddles the line between characterization and affectation––you never lose sight of the fact that it is Soria onstage, but that’s the point."
- Juan A. Ramirez
VULTURE
"This first pandemic-era in-person show at the Rattlestick gleams with polish...Thirteen years of rewriting and rehearsing have left him with a script that shines like lacquer, and an impersonation that's kinetically exquisite."
-Helen Shaw