Sleep With the Angels

Reviewed by Deborah Klugman

Latino Theatre Company at Los Angeles Theatre Center

Thru June 26

RECOMMENDED

In Sleep With the Angels, directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela, playwright Evelina Fernandez portrays a fragmented family of Latinx extraction — but the truths she seeks to convey might resonate anywhere.

Molly (Elia Saldana), a recently separated mother of two, is an ambitious attorney struggling to balance the demands of her job with the responsibilities of motherhood. Her daughter Cindy (Victoria Tamez) is host to the typical resentments and insecurities of adolescent girls her age; she’s angry with her mom whom she blames for her father’s absence, and she’s disconsolate because a boy she has a mad crush on seems not to notice her. Cindy engages in frequent screaming matches with her brother Alex (Saul Nieto), who sometimes wears makeup and colorful clothes and is otherwise engaged in cultivating his future gender identity. The boy’s non-traditional behavior greatly disturbs his dad John (Randy Vasquez), who has difficulty accepting that Alex isn’t going through a phase but is likely expressing who he will become.

What we have, then, is a stress-filled familial situation, not atypical of other contemporary American families.

Change comes with the arrival of a new nanny. Juana (Esperanza America) is a Mexican immigrant, hurriedly hired after the former one unexpectedly quit and Molly finds herself in desperate need of someone to look after her kids while she’s away on a business trip. Arrayed festively in traditionally Mexican dress, with a soft manner and a sweet smile, Juana provides sharp contrast to the harried Molly, who can be strident and — despite acknowledging her Chicana identity — does not speak Spanish. The attitude-ridden Cindy is initially disdainful of this stranger in their home, but Alex bonds with Juana immediately, especially after she cures his hiccups by placing a ball of red thread on his forehead — part of the arsenal of magic tricks that she employs to heal those in distress around her.

Juana’s magic is part and parcel of Sleep with the Angels, whose basic plot (Will John and Molly get back together? Will Alex be allowed to grow and flourish as he wishes?) reflects on multiple social issues: immigration, trans and homophobia, the plight of women worldwide, the struggle of families to preserve love and loyalty in a harsh world (It does so, however, without as much depth as Fernandez’s heartbreakingly beautiful The Mother of Henry, produced by this company in 2019 and set during the Vietnam War). Here, Juana’s magic generates another way of looking at life’s trials — a softer, more hopeful vision of what might be if only we had the power to transform our ugly realities by approaching them with an open heart and a smidgen of benevolent sorcery.

For hardcore realists in the audience, embracing this alternate vision becomes possible by virtue of America’s lovely illuminating performance, which lights up the stage and the play, as if all the magic evoked in the theater has emanated from within her.

The other striking aspect of this production is its tech, which includes Robert Revell’s original Latinx-themed guitar music that showcases the vocals of the cast (especially those of Saldana and America). Scenic designers Emily Anne MacDonald and Cameron Jaye Mock have created a gorgeous, visually arresting space. They are also credited with the pastel-hued lighting and joyful special effects; these elements meld with John Zalewski’s sterling sound throughout to conjure an almost celestial aura of lightness and hope.

That said, the entrancing macrocosmic scope of these elements doesn’t always work in sync with the down-to- earth scenes in the play. While there are tables and an ottoman, there’s no real semblance of a household to frame the domestic conflict. Also, central to the design is a blue-and-green tiled platform, with adjacent gauze curtains that can be open and shut; this is Alex’s bedroom. It’s imaginative and beautiful, but its positioning intrudes in other scenes when the actors must step on or around it, to no apparent point.

Besides America, the other performances range from solid to capable to problematic (albeit the latter through no fault of the actor). Saldana is convincing but somewhat one-note as Molly (for some reason, she always seems to be standing affixed in one place to deliver her lines, a directorial issue). Tamez’s teen plays generically at first but develops layers as her character goes through changes. Vasquez is on point as the visiting Dad, who loves his children and his wife but for reasons not quite clear to him (or us) is compelled to move on. As Alex, Nieto delivers the goods in moments of catharsis later in the play, but his appearance (and native bearing) is distracting: the actor looks like the college-age individual that he is rather than the (presumably) middle school lad he’s supposed to be. Tina D’Marco brings lots of humor to her twin roles as the kids’ Grandma and the sociable wife of Molly’s lecherous boss. The latter is depicted by Eduardo Roman, who also satisfactorily assumes the role of the family gardener and Juana’s uncle.

Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 N. Spring St., downtown L.A.; Thurs.- Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 4 pm; thru June 26. Running time: approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission. www.latinotheaterco.org