Testosterone: A Play by Sabina Berman

“If you don’t fight for this office like you were fighting for your life‚ then you don’t have the stones to fill it.” So declares Ricardo, editor in chief of a big city newspaper, to his managing editor, Alejandra, a 42-year-old woman who goes by the name of Alex, in Sabina Berman’s hit play Testosterone. When the couple met twenty years ago, they might have become lovers, but chose an alternate path. Alex has been Ricardo’s protégée at the newspaper – and now, she may become his successor. Ricardo has to step down as chief editor for medical reasons, and Alex is one of two candidates in line to replace him. The other is Ricardo’s unscrupulous and ambitious deputy editor, Beteta, who will seemingly stop at nothing to land the top job. As Ricardo pits Alex against Beteta in what she sardonically calls “a shootout,” something else occurs to the chief editor – he might not have long to live, and his long-avoided romantic involvement with Alex may finally be at hand.

Sabina Berman’s uproarious play is frequently performed in Mexico City, but it has never been enacted in San Miguel – until now. By special permission of the author, La Troupe México, the only dedicated bilingual theater company in San Miguel, will present Testosterone in three performances at the Skot Foreman Gallery, in Fabrica la Aurora, on Friday, August 15, 2025, and Saturday, August 16, at 6pm; and on Sunday, August 17, at 3:30pm.

The format is live radio theater – a reading by actors with music and sound effects before an audience, to be recorded for future podcast. Testosterone was adapted for radio and is directed by Fredric Dannen, who last year adapted and directed Arthur Miller’s The Price as a La Troupe radio play at the Shelter Theater, in English with supertitles in Spanish. This time around, the play is in Spanish with supertitles in English.

The cast members are two of San Miguel’s most talented actors: Marcela Brondo (Much Ado About Nothing, The Language Archive) as Alex, and Rodrigo Demian (Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Kiss of the Spider Woman) as Ricardo.

Sabina Berman is a four-time winner of the National Playwriting Award in Mexico, and one of the country’s leading playwrights.

Testosterone is a feature of FASMA 2025, the annual Festival de las Artes San Miguel de Allende. This play carries a parental advisory for mature themes and explicit language. It is not suitable for children.