Mathias Brinda and Khalif J. Gillett (Photo by Jenny Graham)
Reviewed by Socks Whitmore
Latino Theatre Company at Los Angeles Theatre Center
Through May 3
Andi René Christensen (Photo by Jenny Graham)
“What does it mean to live as your true, authentic self?” Latino Theater Company presents the world premiere of Level Up!, a multigenerational new play by Gabriel Rivas Gómez about family, identity, and transformation in an era increasingly shaped by virtual environments and simulated realities.
Desi López is a closeted trans tween and gamer who finds an outlet in a virtual world called The Proxy. In real life (IRL), Desi wears an oversized hoodie and is still seen as a boy by her family and peers, but in the Proxy, she can take the form of a powerful female warrior with butterfly wings on a quest to save her dying dog and reunite with her late mother. Together with her allies 8eatles (“Beatles”) the 8ard, her brother Memo, and her dog Azlan’s humanoid avatar, she sets out to defeat the villainous Smallfish and ‘level up’ enough to tell her dad who she really is.
The colorful crew of characters feels similar to a D&D party, complete with a singing bard. Khalíf J. Gillett as 8eatles performs with an impressive falsetto, though the instrumental track is often so loud it’s hard to hear the lyrics they’re singing. The cast changes outfits throughout as they oscillate between the real world and the digital realm, switching from day clothes to rugged adventuring costumes (designed by Catarina Copelli). Andi René Christensen as Azlan alternates between plainclothes puppeteer and talking quest companion. Desi’s butterfly princess dress is beautiful and offers a stark contrast to the hoodie she hides in IRL.
The design of Level Up! is where the play most shines, combining massive wall-to-wall projections with neon lights and epic scene transitions underscored by 90s rock music. Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh’s projection design does the heavy lifting of the scene design, fusing fantasy with digiscape and Internet culture. The use of projections (augmented by Xinyuan Li’s lighting design) to bring the boss battles to life is an especially delightful tribute to video game aesthetics, depicting lightning blasts, hit points, and iconic “Level Up” title cards. The incorporation of bubble machines at several different points during the show is an extra whimsical touch. An unfortunate flaw of the design is the rectangular screen frames that at times create a distracting visual echo in the projections for those not seated directly center.
Co-commissioned by Latino Theater Company and Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis as part of the Generation Now initiative supported by the Mellon Foundation, Level Up! was developed in Latino Theater Company’s Circle of Imaginistas playwriting group and was previously workshopped through developmental productions in Minneapolis as well as Atlanta, GA at the Alliance Theatre. Lead actor Matthias Brinda has been involved with the project since its earliest workshops, and throughout the process the team made a point to incorporate actors, designers, and consultants from a trans/non-binary perspective to strengthen the story’s authenticity. For trans audiences, there are relatable details like the callout of cisgender grief as a choice — the all too familiar lines of “I’m losing a brother/son” — and the portrayal of the classic ‘dysphoria hoodie’ as a form of both armor and restraint.
However, Level Up!’s coming out plot fights for air in a script overstuffed with underdeveloped storylines. Desi’s desire to overcome her real-world powerlessness to save her dog ends up competing with her family’s various shades of grief for their dead mother, the cyberbullies and trolls that mock Desi for being trans, and the threat of an all-boys school that tempts her to log out of the real world forever. The laws of the virtual universe are unclear and ask for some suspension of disbelief when Smallfish’s avatar claims to have transitioned from an IRL user to an autonomous artificial intelligence that could trade places with Desi, and shows her fabricated memories that she can inhabit and alter. The memories sequence is especially drawn-out and bogs down the plot with confusing exposition. Desi and Memo’s relationship develops naturally over the course of the show as her brother comes to understand and affirm her, but while the final scene is emotionally moving, the surplus plotlines leave little room at the end to explore a realistic reaction from their father and his arc is quickly tied into a dubiously neat little bow. The play self-describes as “multi-generational” to mixed success, juggling stilted references to Gen Alpha jargon with riddles about 90s culture but not really unpacking the difference in worldviews between those two experiences. The play notably does not address machismo culture or other forms of toxic masculinity, which feels like a missed opportunity in a work of theater that seeks to be intersectionally trans and Latino.
In an interview with BroadwayWorld, playwright Gómez shares: “Early drafts were very much over-written, in part because I needed to get a handle on the virtual world. Each draft involved me adding in spots but also cutting quite a bit of detail.” The effects of this process are quite apparent in the current script; the plot is fast-paced and chaotic erring convoluted, at times hard to follow and leaving the runtime begging for either an intermission or a 20-minute shave. This piece is overly ambitious with a lot of good ideas; if it could choose to surgically remove just one or two of its darlings, it has potential to be something excellent.
Latino Theater Company, Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 South Spring St., downtown LA; Thurs.-Fri., 8 pm, Sat.-Sun., 2 pm; thru May 3. https://www.latinotheaterco.org. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission
