Mujeres on the Verge

Reviewed by Odalys Nanin
CASA0101 Theater
Through March 23

RECOMMENDED

Josefina Lopez founded CASA 0101 25 years ago with a student loan from UCLA with a vision to create a haven for new Latina writers to tune in their craft and forge their own destinies as artists. Lopez has been a trailblazer since the age of 18 with her hit play Real Women Have Curves, which was subsequently made into a film and now is bound for Broadway as a musical.  Mujeres on the Verge is the theme title under which four one act plays were written under Lopez’s mentorship.

Celebrating Women’s HER story month, four one acts created by Latina writers explore the different facets of love, passion, adolescence, menopause, dementia and Chicana culture.

The effective simple set (Audrey Szot), serving the quartet of plays, consists of a green wall with a medium size window, a table, four chairs and benches that turn into beds.

Jacquline Guido directs “Last Night” by Maria G. Martinez, which is inspired by the author’s personal experience of taking care of her mother.  Lights come up on Maria (Carmelita Maldonado) the matriarch and caregiver of Abuela- Luz (Alejandra Flores), who suffers from dementia.  Flores’s heartfelt and endearing performance shines as the the story’s centerpiece. She holds on to her doll like she would a real life baby, naming her Maria de la Luz, and doesn’t want to close her eyes for fear of dying, thus depriving Maria the caretaker of sleep. When Maria’s daughter Vanessa (Arianna Raygoza) enters with cell phone in hand, she sees how badly unkept her mother Maria has become caring for Luz.  She encourages her mother to go on a retreat and offers to take care of Luz for a month. The heroines of this story are the three distinct generations who carry a baton as caregivers: the 1950s grandmother, the 1970’s mother, and the Gen X daughter who is free of society’s conventions.  The true heroes of this story are the women.

Mariana Herrera “The Fan Club,” directed by Karla Ojeda, is inspired by a recollection of the writer’s friends fanning themselves at a restaurant because they were all having hot flashes. An attractive Cuban woman Sonia (Gisel Murillo) is arguing with her handsome Cuban fiancee Marco Gomez (Alejandro Bravo) regarding his late working hours motivated by earnings to buy her a 5-karat diamond engagement ring.  Gisel has had enough with Marco’s excuses of not being around or making love to her for a long while.  He wants to get marry and have children but she’s peri-menopausal and has no interest at all in children.  Gisel is a successful business woman owner of a  Cuban restaurant.  There she meets with her three colorful menopausal friends to do what friends enjoy best: gossiping.  As Terry, Carmelita Maldonado is boisterously loud and funny. She lights up the stage with her charming, underhanded jokes.  Completely the opposite is her subdued friend, Anna ( Myrna Velasco), who wears librarian glasses yet burns with passion for the cute bartender Raul ( Saul Rodriguez). But the best is saved for last, when Diana (Tricia Cruz) enters oozing sexual vibes like a cat on a hot tin roof, flouting her wares even though she’s also menopausal  and denying it to the bitter end. Diana is a man-eater cougar to her friends. Gisel, Ana and Terry wish they had what she flaunts. Diana claims to be dating a man with the same name as  Marco. Poor Gisel: What is she to do with cheating Marco? Marry him or dump him?  When Marco re-enters, he recognizes Diana, and the whole situation spins out of control.

“The Hand of God” is a one woman show written and performed by Raquel Salinas, and directed by Olivia Chumacero.  A middle-aged woman arrives at her family Christmas party to find no one at home. We observe the making of an alcoholic, a journey of addiction, from adolescent to adulthood.  Salina fearlessly dives into a theme rarely explored,  how does an innocent teenager turn into an alcoholic. It is said that we are the masters of our own destiny based on decisions we make. As a performer, Salina is like a master magician, a shape-shifter, easily transforming herself from the teenager who follows her alcoholic father, to taking her first drink, to falling in love and loosing her virginity, to being betrayed, leaving behind a trail of small empty tequila bottles. This seasoned actress manipulates her voice from a low baritone to a high pitched soprano.  Her characterizations range from female, to male, to father, to daughter, to gang boyfriend, to young teenager.  A riveting journey of the soul without restrains culminating into the continual survival mechanism, the infamous tequila shots.

“Rumble” is ingeniously written by Lindsey Haley, and set in 1965 when two women, Lupita and La Red (Carmelita Maldonado and Tina D’Marco), are 18-year-old pachucas. Decades later these two women are now residents of an assisted living home. When they meet there, they are forced to confront the betrayal of the man they both fell in love with. Pauline (Myna Velasco) is the daughter of Lupita  who decides to take a trip to Europe before dropping off her mother at the assisted living home .  Even though Lupita uses a walker she is certainly not weak in the head. La Red uses a cane is convincing as a the scorned woman, holding a grudge against Lupita for stealing her man. Two other elderly residents intervene during their fight, Mrs. Sanchez (Alejandra Flores) and Mrs Ramirez (Tricia Cruz). This duo works together like a greek chorus making commentaries about the animosity between Lupita and La Red.  Vilma Villela effectively directs this hysterically funny play. Vilma Villela directs.

CASA 0101 Theater in the Gloria Molina Auditorium, 2102 East First Street, East LA. Opens Fri., Feb. 28; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 3 pm; thru March 23. https://casa0101.org