Christian Telesmar and Cheryl Umaña (Photo by Jeff Lorch)
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Rogue Machine at The Matrix Theatre
Through March 4
RECOMMENDED
In October of 1970 , a bright crimson cover of Time Magazine featured a likeness of Chile’s democratically elected president, socialist Salvador Allende, and a banner across the top that read, “Marxist Threat in the Americas.” Three years later the magazine reported on Allende’s suicide, which transpired during a coup perpetrated by a military junta led by Augusto Pinochet, infamous perpetrator of a subsequent reign of terror. While (officially) no hard evidence exists that the CIA participated in the coup, there’s substantial verification of the U.S. government doing its utmost to undermine Allende before his overthrow took place.
What happened in Chile is a single highlight in the long, shameful history of US involvement with regime change in Latin America, which began back in the 19th century and operates into the present day. In modern times, the raisons d’être for these efforts have been protecting American corporate assets (including an unfettered right to pollute) and an obsession with fighting off Soviet — and currently, leftwing and liberal — ideology.
Playwright Juan Jose Alfonso’s Middle of the World skillfully encapsulates the central dynamic of this history in a story that centers on the relationship between a former head of state of a foreign country, now working as an Uber driver in New York City, and a Black corporate executive, who, defying the odds, has risen to become a mover and shaker within Wall Street’s financial landscape.
When the play opens, an insular 30-something Glenn (Christian Telesmar) is being ferried to his destination by the somewhat older Victoria (Cheryl Umaña). Unexpectedly, she strikes up a conversation, probing with gentle irony why a Black man such as himself would become so ambitiously embedded in the corporate establishment. This strikes Glenn as an odd line of questioning coming from an Uber driver, but when he inquires further, he learns that Victoria is an educated woman (Griffin and Yale) with extensive knowledge of finance, among other things. The conversation concludes in her revelation that she had once been president of Ecuador.
From there we go to flashback, where we see Victoria under pressure from a representative of the U.S. State Department (Leandro Cano) to make a move against an environmental activist, who is stirring up trouble for American companies. Victoria refuses — but the next thing we know she is no longer president and is living and working in New York City (with the details of her ousting to be revealed later on).
As their friendship progresses and their attraction grows, Glenn begins to seriously question the career path he’s chosen, to the chagrin of his sexist friend and work colleague Warren (Dan Lin), whom he’s known since childhood. Meanwhile, Victoria, with the assistance of a well-connected attorney (Jennifer Pollono), is pursuing a means of getting back to Ecuador so as to reunite with her son Rodrigo (though we are given to understand he is hostile to their relationship).
Directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos, Middle of the World premiered at the Boise Contemporary Theatre this past fall under his direction and with everyone in this cast, save Pollono, originating these roles. The performance I attended this past weekend was fine — but not as electric as the play itself, which deserves a powerhouse production.
Umaña, featured in two of the finest Latino and Native American-themed plays I’ve seen — The Mother of Henry by Evalina Fernandez and This Land by Evangeline Ordáz — registers as a woman with whom you can easily connect, as in those prior stagings, but not quite as someone with the fire and charismatic stature to lead a nation. As Warren, Lin’s later scenes, filled with disappointment and betrayal, come through; whereas earlier in the play, his character seems on autopilot.
Pollono and Cano are persuasive as attorney and manipulative diplomat, respectively. Telesmar proves most effective as a self-satisfied person who gradually comes to recognize, then realize, his better self within.
The action transpires on Nicholas Hewitt’s modest set. To my eye, Andrew Hungerford’s lighting keeps the actors in shadow too much of the time, so that we miss much of what facial expressions convey. Tremulous music between scene changes (sound design, Peter John Still, sound consultant, Christopher Moscatiello) struck me as overly melodramatic for what is, on its own, an important, compelling story.
Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., W. Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 3 pm, Mon., 8 pm; thru March 4. www.roguemachinetheatre.org. Running time: 95 minutes with no intermission.
