Darius Marquis Johnson, Lee Harris, Breayre Tender, Rogelio Douglas III, and Celia Mandela Rivera (Photo by Grettel Cortes Photography)
Reviewed by G. Bruce Smith
Latino Theater Company at Los Angeles Theatre Center
Through May 25
Writing an unconventional play comes with risks and rewards. The main risk is that audiences will not connect with the material because it is not what they are used to. The potential reward is that audiences, despite initial reservations, will embrace the unconventionality and the play will be praised for breaking new ground.
The Last Play by Rickérby Hinds is clearly unconventional. Kudos to playwright Hinds for taking the risk. But to be successful, to fall into the “reward category,” the work must have connective tissue between its various parts; otherwise, it becomes little more than a pastiche — in other words, an incongruous mix of materials or motifs taken from different sources.
And a pastiche is exactly what Hinds has created in his (commissioned) world premiere play produced by the Latino Theater Company.
This does not mean, however, that there are not moments of insight, comedy, dramatic tension or poignancy in the text. It also does not mean that the work does not include engaging pieces of hip hop (after all, Hinds is known as one of the pioneers of hip-hop theater), or choreography (Marissa Herrera), or explorations of what it means to be an immigrant and an Afro-Latine person in America.
Hinds’s conceit is interesting and unusual: He has written a play about writing a play. Hinds himself has writer’s block. He has passed at least a couple of deadlines to deliver his script —and the stakes are high (by playwright standards): $10,000 for the commission.
As Hinds (Khalif J. Gillett) gets into the weeds of what it takes to create something deliverable to his patron theater, he turns to past characters he has written in previous plays (all of whom are played by solid actors). He apparently believes that these characters (who collectively also act as a kind of Greek chorus) can help him get past his writer’s block. And so, between sometimes humorous monologues, we get to witness this “mess in progress” (one of his character’s descriptions, not mine).
We learn that Hinds immigrated to South Central L.A. from Honduras at the age of 13. We discover that he received an MFA from UCLA in playwriting and currently teaches playwriting at UC Riverside. We learn that he has written plays for 40 years. We find out that his father died in a storm aboard a ship when he was 9, and rescued him from a hurricane when he was a wee lad (more of his relationship with his father would have been nice).
We get to see scenes from his previous plays — for example, Birthmark, his immigrant play, in which the young Hinds faces ridicule from American-born Black men. Or Straight from the Underground, in which a pimp from Compton time travels and meets Harriet Tubman.
What is possibly the highlight of the performance comes when Gillett (as Hinds), who has heretofore focused primarily on the Afro part of his heritage, turns to the audience and asks well, what about his Latine ancestry? And then he launches into the song El Rey by the iconic late Mexican mariachi singer Vicente Fernandez. At least half the audience loudly and proudly sings along with Gillett (who has a terrific voice). When the song ends, he asks the Latines in the audience to turn to their seatmates and explain the significance of the song. It’s a charming moment.
The Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street, downtown LA. Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 4 pm; thru May 25. latinotheaterco.org Running time, One hour and 30 minutes with no intermission.
