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Patience, Fortitude and Other Anti-Depressants
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
INTAR Theatre (NYC) at Los Angeles Theatre Center
Through Nov. 8
A familiar story isn’t necessarily a banal one.
Directed by Daniel Jáquez, Mariana Carreño King’s uneven one-act tells of a young woman who marries for love, only to grapple with loneliness and disappointment a few years later when her husband turns cold and withdrawn. It’s a common experience, surely as old as marriage itself, but it’s depicted with enough brio and insight to maintain our interest.
The play is set in New York’s inner city. Isabella (Diomargy Nuñez) is a visual artist, whose paintings of women mirror her troubled inner self. She’s married to Juan (Orlando Rivera), a macho police officer who works the night shift. A steady, thoughtful person (at least as interpreted by Nuñez), Isabella eschews drugs and all-night partying but remains close with her childhood friends, who spend lots of time hanging out and smoking weed. Though Juan also is from the neighborhood, he disapproves of his old pals, especially Victor (Aldo Uribe), a genial small-time dealer who fancies Juan’s sister and who may once have had a thing for Isabella as well. (As staged, this is one of the plot’s fuzzier elements.)
Played out on a minimal set, King’s script alternates between the depiction of Isabella’s interior conflicts, and scenes in the here-and-now, with her husband, in-laws and friends. The struggles involving her identity and her marriage are expressed when her paintings – reflections of her past and present selves, come alive and speak.
Part of the Encuentro festival celebrating the work of Latino dramatists and artists, the production has something of a work-in-progress feel to it. At times the writing flows; other times it’s choppy and overextended. The ending is abrupt. Another problem with the story is that there’s little exploration of Juan’s behavior. Why is he beings such a jerk – rejecting intimacy with his wife while attempting to control every aspect of her life? Rivera’s stiff and sullen posturing offers no additional clues.
Other less-than-assured performances by the “paintings,” along with so-so lighting and a limited set, bog things down, resulting in a lack of crispness and clarity.
Yet the end result remains engaging, with Nuñez’s capable craft and likable presence drawing one in. Playwright Carreño King is sharp and lively as Isabella’s plainspoken party-going friend Jess, while Ashley Marie Ortiz is effective as a pregnant gal with a drinking problem. And Martina Potratz portrayal of Isabella’s controlling sister-in-law Agnes is keenly etched.
INTAR Theatre (NYC) at Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 Spring Street, downtown; Thurs. and Sat, 8:30, through Nov. 8. (213) 489-0994, www.thelatc.org
