El Borracho
All the ingredients are there, starting with David Israel Reynoso’s inspired set, which surrounds the play’s small-apartment setting with a moat of boozy empties. All those bottles Dad drained, long since tossed but still hemming in our troubled trio: Mom, Dad, and their son the collegiate playwright. (The program’s interview is titled “Making Art Out of Life,” and in it, breakthrough writer Tony Meneses says that the story is based on “a lot of autobiographical stuff,” and is what came to mind when his teacher talked about writing “the play that scares you.”) Meneses’ setup is another excellent ingredient: Dad is sick, so sick that he needs a caretaker, and the only real option is his long-suffering ex-wife, who was so adamant that she would never see him again that she missed her son’s first play just to avoid any encounters with El Borracho, the loteria game’s Drunkard come to loathsome life. Everyone is trapped — Dad by his illness and macho denial, Mom by her pain and resentment, and son by his broken family and oh, yes, the big secret he is afraid to reveal to his immigrant parents. And the cast is capable; you can see it from the moment they appear, Dad and his swooping limp, Son and his sympathetic tones, Mom and her tightening jaw. All that remains is to stick them in a room together, either in pairs or all three at once, and let their mingling bring things to a boil. But ingredients are not a finished dish. Too often, the dialogue feels less like talk and more like expository writing, such thatthe characters have to act through the wordiness. Too often, the humor feels jokey instead of integral and leavening. (“Why is La Sirena, the mermaid, topless?” “Because Mexican men made it!”) More than once, Dad insists he’s changed, but he doesn’t say or show how or why. And the big secret is...not that big, at least not in the world of the play.But the play is pleasingly ambitious, taking in as it does immigrant enculturation, familial drama, and generational mores, and slipping as it does into occasional flights of cleverly staged fancy (the slow-strobe effect at the climax is a bit of lo-tech wonder.) And often, it has the essential ingredient of felt life, which counts for so much. — Matthew Lickona
When
Ongoing until Sunday, March 20, 2022
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm & 7pm |
| Tuesdays, 7pm |
| Wednesdays, 7pm |
| Thursdays, 8pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 2pm & 8pm |