Water & Power
The title of Richard Montoya's "stage noir" drama sums up Southern California history in three words. "There is no power without water," Asuncion Garcia tells his twin boys, "and no water without power." He raises Gilbert and Gabriel to become East L.A. legends nicknamed "Water" and "Power." Gil goes into polities, Gabe, law enforcement, but they go too far. The public servants put private interests first, and the play becomes a cautionary tale about abuses of power. Montoya's a member of the extremely popular group Culture Clash. The script combines film noir intensity with Clash satire. Sometimes the latter shoots the former in the foot. But the jokes, even when they pull us away from a life and death situation, are funny, and individual lines conjure up noir-like ambiguities, as when a character says, "Nothing is concrete in L.A. except the river." Director Sam Woodhouse and the San Diego Rep have staged the play in-the-round, including a four-sided rain effect. Woodhouse has smoothed out many of the play's at times uneven rhythms (though the denouement do run long). He and his cast obviously enjoy the hard-boiled genre of shadowy subtexts. As the brothers, Richard Trujillo (Gilbert) and Herbert Siquenza (Gabe) don't resemble twins. But the pair creates such a strong emotional connection that the physical difference disappears. Outstanding performances by Michael Genovese (as the Fixer, a precise developer-thug) and Bobby Plasencia (as Norte/Sur, a paraplegic poet-shaman with "L.A." tatooed on his shaved head). Water & Power's obsessed with opposites. Norte/Sur fills the space between them. In the wrong hands, he could become a yummy Obi Wan. Instead, Plasencia makes him such a self-effacing seer of inclusionary visions, he should become the next California governor. Or, more to the point, our state water commissioner.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, November 16, 2008
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm & 7pm |
| Wednesdays, 7pm |
| Thursdays, 8pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 8pm |