The lives of two women from very different worlds collide in the illusionary paradise of a Mexican resort. Sarah, a Canadian wedding guest, is a shot glass half empty. Adriana, a fastidious and vivacious hotel floor manager, finds solace in establishing order. At first glance, they’re simply animated, but looking closer reveals the anxieties they’re trying to hide. When their worlds collide, everything they’ve kept hidden comes into sharp focus.

A bilingual play in English and Spanish, each woman speaks in her own language and shares her unique experiences directly with the audience. Their vastly different realities are reflected in parallel, coming together to mirror and magnify a mutual pain. Through nuanced and surprisingly funny monologues, Quintana and Zelaya-Cervantes focus an attentive microscope on female strength and solidarity to stunning effect.

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Mexican playwright, screenwriter, director, and translator Paula Zelaya-Cervantes graduated from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, with a double major in Theatre and Honours English Literature. Paula wrote and directed The Orbweaver/El Hilador (Cento Cultural Teatro 2, Mexico City; Centro Cultural Helénico, Mexico City; and Vancouver Fringe Festival International Mainstage Selection, 2016). Other playwriting and directing credits include Sasha & Spot (Teatro el Galeón, Mexico City) and 245 Acts of Unspeakable Evil, which she co-wrote with Ana González Bello, and which premiered off-Broadway in 2017 at the United Solo Festival. Paula has adapted and translated over twenty plays.

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“... a lush, layered, complex story with the depth, poetry, and drama of a great novel. Just like when you’re standing barefoot on a beach as the tide comes in and your feet slowly sink down into cool, wet sand—then sink a little more—this bilingual two-hander takes you deeper and deeper and deeper into the characters’ lives, hearts, and minds in the most thoughtful, impactful of ways as it goes.”

Gail Johnson, Stir

“I loved Clean / Espejos because it didn’t feel like a play with a Latinx or Spanglish aesthetic. Instead, it felt truly and fundamentally bilingual and both Adriana and Sarah were culturally specific entities, from language to how they dream, from their fears to what their biggest flaws are.

El punto es que me encantó Clean / Espejos porque no parecía una obra de teatro con una estética Latine o Spanglish — se sintió para mi verdadera y fundamentalmente bilingüe. Tanto Adriana como Sarah son entidades culturalmente específicas, desde el lenguaje hasta la forma en que sueñan, desde sus miedos hasta sus mayores defectos.”

Dora Prieto, Vancouver Arts Review

“... an impressively mature work of art.”

Colin Thomas, ColinThomas.ca

“... a riveting drama showcasing a pair of vulnerable women who each come from very diverse backgrounds, economic levels, and, most significantly, native languages. While their individual experiences couldn't be any more different, they do both share the rather arduous common goal of trying to get past their respective prior traumas that have shaped who they are and have continued to haunt them as adults.”

Michael Quintos, Broadway World