INTERVIEW: Florencia Iriondo explores issues of family, home in new musical
Photo: Florencia Iriondo is the writer and performer of the new musical South. Photo courtesy of Shervin Lainez / Provided by Matt Ross PR with permission.
South, the new show from Florencia Iriondo, is not a typical musical with big dance numbers and 11 o’clock numbers that bring down the house. Instead, what Iriondo is after is something more intimate and cozy, something more personal and reflective. South delves into the story of a family who have made the journey from Argentina to the United States; it’s a journey that mirrors Iriondo’s own life.
“I started writing South probably eight or nine years ago,” she said. “I moved to New York a decade ago, and I realized that this was the place that I wanted to be. And theater was always my goal and my dream, and moving here when I was already 30, I realized, who is going to give me a chance with no professional credits, with this accent, with the way that I sing and perform. So if I wanted to do something, I will have to write my own show. So I basically started writing and crafting the show and the role that I would love for someone to cast me in, and it’s been a progress. It’s been changing a lot throughout the last few years.”
Originally South was a larger show with numerous characters and a big band bringing to life the sounds of South American folk music. Although Iriondo has a love for big musicals and large casts, this show was going to be different; she wanted the feeling of hanging out with friends and family.
“So I completely stripped it down to a one-person show, and I reshaped everything,” Iriondo said. “So it felt like it was one person inviting you into their home and sharing a story about their life with music. The show is not strictly autobiographical because the show is about a family that leaves Argentina in the ‘90s and comes to New York and all the ups and downs that come with that. My story is I came here by myself 10 years ago, but having said that, all of the themes are true to what I care about the most. And I feel like this difference gives me the perspective that I need to fictionalize certain elements and be able to write about the things that I care about the most, which are family, belonging and the idea of missing home, even though it’s my choice to build a life here in New York.”
South continues through Wednesday, Nov. 15 at the Soho Playhouse in Downtown Manhattan. Performances at the venue have been going strong for the past month, and Iriondo said the audiences have connected with the piece, even if their own journey is quite different than the journey they see on stage.
“It is very important for me that this show appeals to everybody,” she said. “I want this to be a place of community and for all of us to come together. I’m not trying to alienate anybody. Just the fact that I come from another country doesn’t mean that this story can only apply to people who moved from one country to the other, so this is about family and about home. And I feel like there’s something nostalgic about leaving something behind. For some of us, that’s another country. For some other people, it’s their hometown or childhood, so it may be a time or place. But we’re all now standing in different shoes than we were five, 10, 20 years ago, whatever that may be. So that idea of leaving something behind, reconnecting with our true core and the idea of home I think applies to anybody.”
Soho Playhouse is an intimate space, allowing Iriondo the chance to look into the eyes of the audience members and see their reactions. She also shares some food from her culture, and she’s able to say hello after the show is finished each night.
“People tell me afterward, people who don’t know me and who have never moved miles away, that they totally connect with the idea of home and family,” she said. “So that has been the most rewarding thing for me.”
The musical style is unique. Iriondo is originally from Argentina, so the sounds of that music-driven country and culture are definitely present in South. But she also offers folk traditions from all of South America, plus there are influences from her time in other parts of the world.
“It’s a mix of things,” Iriondo said of the music. “I traveled around the world a lot. When I was 20, I moved to New Zealand. I lived there for two years. Then I went to Ireland, and I spent three years in Dublin. I moved to New York 10 years ago, and I grew up in Argentina in the ‘80s and the ‘90s. So I have a mix of Argentinian folk music with pop music. The Top 40 hits that were popular here in the States in the ‘80s and ‘90s were also popular in Argentina, or at least some of them, so I feel like the music we [play] is a little bit of that eclectic mix of the music that I grew up with.”
She added: “What I do like about our music the most is that it’s performed by two musicians [Federico Diaz and Agustin Uriburu] who are excellent musicians who also happen to be my very close friends, and they’re Argentinian. So they also bring that South American style, and it’s very acoustic. Traditionally musical theater sounds a certain way because of the instruments that play this music. This is only played by a guitarist and a cellist, so it has an acoustic feel to it as well. And they’re amazing, so it sounds fuller like there are more instruments. But it’s just the two of them. My way of singing it sounds like some of my favorite musicians in Argentina. I’m not your traditional Broadway belter, for better or worse. So everything has to have a unique sound in that way.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
South, written and performed by Florencia Iriondo, continues through Wednesday, Nov. 15 at the Soho Playhouse in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
