The 1970s El Paso setting of Octavio Solis’s “Lydia” along the Texas-Mexico border forecasts a drama where reality and unreality flow freely into each other. The illegal-immigrant maid of the title, hired to take care of Ceci—a girl on the eve of her quinceañera but left unable to communicate because of a car crash injury—provides the key to unlocking shattering family secrets.

Solis pointedly raises issues of immigration, disabilities, race, sexual awakening, homophobia, and forbidden love, illuminating, as he describes it, “dark and light, life and death, one country and another, between one consciousness and another.” The Denver Post praised the 2008 play, saying it is “an astonishing, expertly crafted tragedy that seduces and tempts you with its pulsing rhythms and evocative language until it has you fully under its spell.”

Director: Quin Gordon

Content warning: For mature audiences only. Strong language and intense themes.