This past Friday, I had the opportunity to eavesdrop on a rehearsal for “If You’re Going to Pull A Knife, USAlo,” a new play by South Florida artists Carlos Caballero and Elizabeth Doud. The play, which opens next Thursday, Sept. 8 at On.Stage Black.Box Theater at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, is a sort of fairytale/love story gone sour between a mermaid and an offshore petroleum worker.

Carlos Caballero. Photo Neil de la Flor Since I already previewed “USAlo,” I want to focus on the costumes, makeup and the intense connection between the two actors, which all work together to create an overwhelming sense of doom. As you can imagine, trouble awaits the mermaid and petroleum worker, but what really foreshadows the couple’s troubled relationship is the fact that the two actors are outfitted in black (Caballero) and white (Doud).

In fact, Caballero, pictured above, spends a good deal of time wearing a cape of recycled plastic water bottles painted black over black overalls and wears a yellow hard hat. Most relationships don’t require a hard hat, but this isn’t ordinary love. Caballero’s costume further represents the grit and grime of petroleum pollution, which is one of the messages the play attempts to communicate to the audience, i.e. petroleum-based products are destroying our environment. Doud, on the other hand, shimmies around stage in a hand-stitched mermaid outfit made out of recycled plastics. Her entire body, face and even her eyelashes are painted white.