“Paradise Mountain was a mountain of garbage on top of the earth that collapsed on itself,” Sugarpie (Rae Yuen) tells Joe (Mikee Loria) in “Tiny Fires.” That’s where she’s lived since she was 4: among the aftermath of a Manila landfill landslide that killed her parents.
In the Custom Made Theatre Co. world premiere by Oakland playwright and poet Aimee Suzara, Sugarpie and Trixie (Dom Refuerzo) have forged a unique bond. They’re more than friends, but not quite lovers or sisters. As they pick through refuse for food, necklaces and other treasures, Sugarpie dreams big, fantasizing about celebrities and directly addressing a god she’s envisioned for herself. Trixie, who in a not-too-distant universe could be a professional chef, keeps them both fed.
Then Joe, the Filipino-American tourist, arrives, camera in hand. He hopes to document their life, but he upsets their hard-won equilibrium.
Nikki Meñez directs the show, which was inspired by the real-life Payatas landslide of 2000, which killed at least 218 people.