From, Oct. 11 through Saturday, Missouri Southern saw the tale of Faena, the play named for a girl sworn to avenge her father, death at the horns of El Toro, a bull.

Faena, written by Guillermo de Leon, is set in the 1940s in Mexico. Faena must over come sexism, lust, death and most of all, dishonor to her and her family in her quest to regain the honor her family lost when Faena’s father was killed in the bull fight.

The play is full of the twists and turns in the life of a young Mexican woman, trying to avenge her father’s death and the death of the family’s honor. She faces persecution from all sides, from her passive uncle who wants nothing to do with the family business of bull fighting, her would-be husband who wants to have her “strong children,” to El Toro the bull himself, seeking to end the life of the woman who dares to confront him.

The five performances of Faena showed Southern students a sense of the culture of Mexico. The play revealed the importance of death, family and honor to the Mexican culture.

“I think the play was very descriptive,” said Todd Davis, freshman undecided major. “I liked the dream scenes that happened during the play. There’s tons of emotions that you get from the play. There’s sadness, happiness, and stress and all kinds of others [in the play].”

Some, such as Kristin Laci, freshman international business major, described the play as “awesome.”

“In Faena, I don’t just see, I feel the anger and the sadness coming from her,” Laci said. “Even then, you can feel the anger and the hostility in the entire family. You can feel the sadness, the anger, and it really makes you pay attention to the play. Also, I really liked the set. I think the set was really creative and innovative.”

Fear and courage are all contained in the play.

Through the high levels of comedy, romance, virtue and truth in Faena and the ultimate surprise ending, the performance kept audience members on edge. The play revealed some truths of life, spoke of the strength in the human spirit to rise up for a belief and led to an ending students said touched their hearts.