Such a large wardrobe should contain more than a single hat.

An audience member might have entertained that thought, briefly, near the beginning of the wry Uruguayan solo show “Gracias por Todo (Thanks for Everything).” In the hour-long piece — which jump-started the 17th International Festival of Hispanic Theater in Arlington last weekend — a woman of a certain age looked back at her life and marriage. Looming behind Graciela (Nidia Telles), as she ranted and paced, was an armoire with a mirrored front. The reflective surface gave her a start whenever it caught her eye: She thought it made her look “deformed.”

When Graciela opened the mirrored door to reveal a single cap once worn by her husband, the headgear seemed dwarfed by the wardrobe’s empty reaches. As playwright Julio Cesar Castro’s tale unfurled, however, you began to feel that the piece of furniture was, in a way, jam-packed: At least symbolically, it seemed to contain Graciela’s wealth of conflicted but ultimately meaningful memories.

Telles is an expressive performer with well-pitched comic timing, and “Gracias por Todo” — which ran through Sunday, directed by Carlos Aguilera — allowed her to display, simultaneously, the comic and poignant aspects of her character’s situation. From the play’s first moments, when a spotlight revealed her in the act of agitatedly massaging her temples, dressed in a demure turtleneck dress, Telles’s Graciela radiated exasperation mellowed by wistfulness. Recalling her husband’s sexual eccentricities, and how mortifying it was to have their daughter find out about them, Graciela allowed that long-ago chagrin to flood back into her face.

And, as she lifted her hands half-heartedly in the air, reliving her brief affiliation with an evangelical-style church, her body language made clear just how much uneasiness that experience had burdened her with. The production’s frequent underscoring, which sounded like accordion music, added to the mood of pensiveness mixed with humor. (Uruguayan dramatist Castro, who died in 2003, wrote “Gracias por Todo” for Telles.)

An event mounted annually by Arlington’s Teatro de la Luna, the International Festival of Hispanic Theater continues through Nov. 23 with shows from Ecuador, Honduras, Spain, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and the United States. All the festival’s offerings for adults are in Spanish with live English dubbing. (Two of the children’s productions are bilingual; one is in Spanish only.)

Next up, Friday through Sunday, the festival welcomes Ecuadoran actor and writer Juana Estrella’s “Loca la Juana (That Crazy Joan),” about Joan of Arc, Pope Joan and Joan the Mad of Castile. Perhaps some theatrical establishment somewhere, someday, will mount a Joan repertory season, with Estrella’s play, George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan,” and Jean Anouilh’s “The Lark.” Now, that would be thinking outside the box — or, perhaps we could say, outside the wardrobe.

Wren is a freelance writer. 17th International Festival of Hispanic Theater In Spanish with live English dubbing (except for the children’s productions). Tickets: $30-35. (Tickets for children’s shows, $10-15 and free for children under 4.) Through Nov. 23 at Gunston Arts Center, Theater Two, 2700 S. Lang St., Arlington, Va. Call 703-548-3092