Mojada

B+

This season’s mini-trend of reinterpreting classic works continues with this New York premiere by MacArthur Genius award winner Luis Alfaro, whose Oedipus El Rey was a hit at the Public last year. Alfaro has once again superimposed a story about the Latino immigrant experience onto a Greek tragedy, this time Euripides’s Medea. The play originated in Chicago in 2013 and has played in Portland and Los Angeles with revisions en route that changed the location to the city of performance. The current version at The Public Theater is set in Queens’s Corona neighborhood in the backyard of the decrepit house where Medea (Sabina Zuñiga Varela) lives with her lover Jason (Alex Hernandez; Kingdom Come), their 10-year old son Acan (Benjamin Luis McCracken) and Medea’s lifelong family servant Tita (Socorro Santiago; Unfinished Women), who is our narrator and chorus. Medea is a skilled seamstress doing piecework at home because she is too afraid to leave the house. Jason is a construction worker with a Cuban emigre boss Pilar (Ada Maris; Bang Bang Blues) whose primary interest in him is not his work skills. Luisa (Vanessa Aspillaga; Anna in the Tropics), a food cart vendor who fled Puerto Rico with her husband after a hurricane wiped them out, provides comic relief. Jason is eager for Acan to assimilate as rapidly as possible while Medea wants him to honor old ways. There are lengthy flashbacks, for me the strongest parts of the play, that recollect the family’s horrific experiences getting from their Mexican home to New York. If you are familiar with the Medea story, you may find the ways Alfaro foreshadows the climax a bit clumsy. The incorporation of elements of Michoacan folk healing traditions works fairly well. He very skillfully weaves into the story the experience of undocumented immigrants in today’s America. A few references are right out of the headlines. The acting is mostly strong; however, I found the depiction of Pilar a bit unmodulated. I also thought that Hernandez’s portrayal of Jason showed him too thoroughly assimilated. Cynic that I am, I have a hunch he was chosen more for his good looks and physique than his acting chops. Arnulfo Maldonado’s (A Strange Loop) scenic design offers no clue that the location is New York. Haydee Zelibeth’s (Playing Hot) costumes are very effective in establishing character. Mikhail Fiksel’s sound design (We’re Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time) contributes a lot to the production. Director Chay Yew’s (Oedipus El Rey) direction is fluid. Even though the contemporary and ancient elements don’t always fit together seamlessly, the overall effect is very strong. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission. 

NOTE: The Public Theater has an annoying habit of hiding valuable information pertinent to the production in obscure locations in the Playbill. In this instance, there is a worthwhile article “Immigration & the Perils of the Journey” that is hidden several pages after the list of Public contributors. When you attend the Public, you would do well to give the Playbill a thorough once-over before curtain time.  By the way, “mojada” is a derogatory term corresponding to “wetback.”

Amy and the Orphans

B

Kudos to Roundabout Theatre Company for their Underground program that produces early work by promising playwrights such as Stephen Karam (Speech & Debate), Steven Levenson (The Language of Trees) and Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews), who prove worthy of a move upstairs to the Laura Pels Theatre for their next work. This new play by Lindsey Ferrentino (Ugly Lies the Bone) continues their enviable track record. Having an aunt with Down syndrome inspired her to write this tragicomedy about three adult siblings temporarily reunited after their father’s death. Jacob (Mark Blum; The Assembled Parties, Rancho Viejo), a 60-year-old middle school teacher from California, and Maggie (Debra Monk; Curtains, Steel Pier), his recently divorced sister from Chicago, meet at LaGuardia Airport on their way to pick up their younger sister Amy (Jamie Brewer; "American Horror Story") [or, at matinees, their younger brother Andy (Edward Barbanell; "The Ringer")] at the group home in Queens where she [or he] lives and proceed to their late father’s home in Montauk for his funeral. They are dreading the task of telling Amy [Andy] about the death of their father — and mother, who died some months before. Amy’s [Andy’s] protective aide Kathy (Vanessa Aspillaga; Daphne's Dive, The Clean House) insists that state regulations require that she accompany them on the trip. In interspersed scenes, we also meet Sarah (Diane Davis; Golden Boy, The Model Apartment) and Bobby (Josh McDermitt; "The Walking Dead"), a 30-ish couple at a workshop trying to do a communication exercise that might help them reach an important decision. We soon realize that these are the parents of the three siblings and the decision they are trying to reach is whether to institutionalize their Down syndrome baby. The alternation of the two plot lines in two time periods works well. The nature of the topic makes it all the more surprising that the play is basically a comedy with serious overtones. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the humorous dialogue is very entertaining with lots of zingers. On the other hand, the neuroses of Jacob and Maggie flirt dangerously with sitcom humor and Kathy’s exuberance is almost overbearing. I thought the scenes between Sarah and Bobby struck the best balance between humor and pathos. There is a revelation late in the play that punctures the lighter mood. I found the transformation that it elicits in Maggie and Jacob unconvincing. A lot rests on the title character. At my performance, that was Andy and Edward Barbanell played him superbly, especially in the moving final monologue. All the roles must be catnip for actors. Rachel Hauck’s (Latin History for Morons, Hadestown) uncluttered set design facilitates scene changes. Alejo Vietti’s (Holiday Inn, Storefront Church) costumes are evocative. Director Scott Ellis (She Loves Me, Curtains) navigates the changes of time, place and mood smoothly. Even though I had reservations about its flaws while watching it, I surrendered and allowed it to both entertain and move me.  Running time: 90 minutes, no interimssion.

Daphne's Dive **

The barroom drama is not a genre that I have ever had an affinity for. Nothing about Quiara Algeria Hudes’s latest play at Signature Theatre has changed my opinion, although I will grant that, unlike some, it at least avoids focusing on a group of alcoholics. Set in the eponymous North Philly bar over an 18-year period, the play introduces us to the strangely reticent bar owner Daphne (Vanessa Aspillaga) and her adopted daughter Ruby (Samira Wiley), whom she rescued from an abusive family when Ruby was 11. We also meet Inez (Daphne Rubin-Vega). Daphne’s older sister who has married Acosta (Carlos Gomez), a wealthy entrepreneur from the hood, and moved to a Main Line suburb. Three denizens of the bar who all look to Acosta for favors are Pablo (Matt Saldivar), an artist who likes to paint garbage; Rey (Gordon Joseph Weiss), a reluctant day laborer who only works enough to support his beloved motorcycle; and Jenn (KK Moggie), a seemingly free-spirited political activist/performance artist. In six scenes that take Ruby from age 11 to 29 (and back again), we follow the changes in these characters over the years. Unfortunately, most of their stories are not that compelling and Hudes does not take us very deeply into their motivation. If I didn’t already know that the playwright had won a Pulitzer Prize (for her play “Water by the Spoonful”), I would not have guessed it from the present work. The actors are fine, the set (by Donyale Werle) is evocative, the costumes (by Toni-Leslie James) are appropriate, the direction (by Thomas Kail) is assured, but somehow, for me at least, the payoff was meager. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes; no intermission. NOTE: Avoid row A because of a high stage.