Fixed

Reviewed by Gray Palmer
Echo Theater Co.
Through October 22

A vulnerable ladyboy’s erotic madness drives the events of Boni B. Alvarez’s new play, Fixed, to a tragic conclusion. The play is presented by Echo Theater Company.

Miracles (the very good Chris Aguila), a masseuse at Malacañang Massage Parlor in Filipinotown — and a representative of the House of Malacañang at drag walks — has failed her psych evaluation for sexual reassignment. It seems that her principal reason for surgery might be the desire to please a lover.

She is obsessed with Mariano (the excellent Wade Allain-Marcus). He is the troubled brother of a public figure, Hudson (Joseph Valdez), an Assistant Sheriff running for election as Los Angeles County Sheriff.

Miracles and Mariano once visited San Francisco together. The details of this trip (“gelato, lavender cookies and sourdough bread”) have become Miracles’s refrain for an imagined life together. But Mariano now infrequently visits her at work, and when he does, sneaking into her room, expecting and receiving sex, he becomes abusive when she complains about his unavailability.

The tough, authoritarian owner of the parlor — and the proud collector of trophies for her house — Gigi Malacañang (playwright Alvarez in a grand performance), has banished Mariano as likely to attract police and press attention.

Mariano’s brother Hudson and his advisors (Renee-Marie Brewster and Adrian Gonzalez) are also concerned about his behavior. They are frightened of losing votes should Mariano’s liaison become public. By their calculation: a gay couple, ok; a straight man and a transgender, ok; a straight man and a drag queen in a massage parlor, no go. So, they have attempted to put a beard on Mariano (though he denies being gay) by arranging the appearance of a relationship with an unstable woman, Lizette (Anna Lamadrid).

Fixed, as you can see, is an elaborately constructed melodrama with blocking motions to love on every side. There are many theatrical pleasures: the performance of the two principals; an initial competitive walk; the dressing-room maintenance of drag; the lyrical speech of Gigi and her workers Jenny and Carmie (Allen Lucky Weaver and Tonatiuh Elizarraraz, both splendid); the delayed, impressive entrance of Alvarez as Gigi; and in a coda, a very fine dance performance by Elizarraraz.

But Alvarez is less successful in suggesting the real world of the sheriff’s department, not that it matters for the modest purposes of melodrama. Nevertheless, even if you have no direct experience of Los Angeles’s finest, or knowledge of its administration, a quick look at the bios and responsibilities of the four Assistant Sheriffs of Los Angeles County confirms that the portrait in Fixed is an absurd caricature. This sketchiness carries over into the casting and staging of that part of the story. The performers are too young — and less than lethal — but this seems mainly a flaw of conception and direction. They carry the wrong flavor of dread.

Rodney To directs. Simple, good scenic design is by Amanda Knehans, excellent costumes are by Michael Mullen, lighting by the reliable Matt Richter was oddly confusing as intensity and areas would shift at the entrance and exit of characters, sound design is by Rebecca Kessin.

Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village; Fri.-Sat. 8:30p.m.; Sun. 4 p.m.; Mon., 8:30 p.m.; through Oct. 22. (310) 307-3753, echotheatercompany.com . Running time: one hour and 40 minutes without intermission.