Reviews
SOMETHING FIERCE: MEMOIRS OF A REVOLUTIONARY DAUGHTER (CREATIVE NON-FICTION BOOK):
"Aguirre's writing is splendid; she combines black humour and a sharp intellect and tells her powerful story in grand style". - Publishers Weekly, U.S.
"Aguirre's tone is far from defeatist in this drily humourous, tautly narrated and inspiring memoir... extraordinary". - Metro, United Kingdom.
"Told with humour and amazement, a memoir of thought-provoking power". - Big Issue, United Kingdom.
"The Chilean diaspora that fled after General Pinochet's coup produced poignant poetry and folk songs. Yet until now it has been difficult to find a convincing memoir of the experience. Carmen Aguirre has plugged this gap... This memoir's piercing eye for detail and exceptional emotional openness draws the reader into a harrowing world..." - Times Literary Supplement, United Kingdom.
"A blend of passion and loneliness fills this memoir... the overriding impression from this moving book is one of personal sacrifice in the struggle against tyranny." - Financial Times, United Kingdom
"A spellbinding, important, informative and wildly entertaining story". - Telegraph-Journal, Canada.
"Aguirre writes like someone who knows how it feels to exhale with no certainty that another breath will follow". - National Post, Canada.
"A coming-of-age story that blends birthday parties and puppy love with indoctrination in the tradecraft of subversion". - Toronto Star, Canada.
"Raw, courageously honest and funny". - The Globe and Mail, Canada.
"Aguirre has crafted a narrative packed with suspense, emotion, and dollops of sardonic humour". - Quill and Quire, Canada.
THE REFUGEE HOTEL (PLAY):
"Four-star hotel (out of four)... This moving, often engrossing play paints rich portraits of eight refugees: some tortured, some fearful, all defiant... a production to catch for its theatrical strengths and historic insights... triumphant". - NOW Magazine, Toronto, Canada.
"Full of wonder and terror... The battle between courage and cowardice looms large here; duty to one's self or to one's people is a constant internal compromise... humourous... heartbreaking". - EYE Weekly, Toronto, Canada.
THE TRIGGER (PLAY):
"The writing is at its most revealing when Aguirre shows us how the young Carmen's mind struggles to process adult-scale horror... Going into an evening like this, you might expect sentimentalization of pain or oversimplification of politics... what The Trigger offers is so strange that it has the ring of truth, and it is never simplistic. Often, though, it is beautiful". - The Georgia Straight, Vancouver, Canada.
"The Trigger is a knockout... intelligent, powerful, funny, horrific, theatrically stunning, and utterly free of victimology". - The Province, Vancouver, Canada.
BLUE BOX (PLAY):
"The play pivots on the fascinating contradictory impulses in this one person: the selfishness of sexual passion versus the selflessness of passionate revolutionary commitment. A good storyteller, Aguirre runs the full gamut of emotion". - The Province, Vancouver, Canada.
"Carmen Aguirre's autobiographical solo show is not only exploding with hot content... it's also delivered with huge technical control. Aguirre is a massively confident performer... That's why Blue Box is my pick of the week." - The Georgia Straight, Vancouver, Canada.
"Aguirre has the same power onstage as performers like Sandra Shamas, Jello Biafra and the late Spalding Grey. She is evocative and paints a picture with words. She doesn't tell us about her journey, she takes us along for the ride and shares it with us". - Mooney on Theatre, Toronto, Canada.
"The scariest and most effective parts of the monologue were found in Aguirre's political reflections, but this entire performance contained a riveting element throughout... engaging... brilliant". - Vancouver Weekly.
"If you are looking for a show that's smart, sassy and provocative then be sure to see Carmen Aguirre's Blue Box". - West of West, Victoria, Canada.
"A storytelling tour-de-force". - Fast Forward Weekly, Calgary, Canada.
"Blue Box is an intimate merging of the political and the personal... mesmeric... Unforgettable". - The Vancouver Courier.
CHILE CON CARNE (PLAY)
"Carmen Aguirre's witty, semi-autobiographical monologue about growing up as a refugee of Chile's Pinochet regime, vividly captures the feelings of a child torn between two worlds." The Globe and Mail.
¿QUE PASA with LA RAZA, eh? (PLAY)
"When we think about the culture of Las Americas, con acento, Canada rarely comes to mind. However, the recent moving premiere of ¿QUE PASA with LA RAZA, eh?, by The Latino Theatre Group, located Vancouver, British Columbia on both the cultural and geographical map of Nuestra America" - Theatre Journal (U.S.)