Kim Griffin and Elizabeth Ramos (photo by Makela Yepez)
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
IAMA Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre
Through December 10
RECOMMENDED
In their new play RADICAL or, are you gonna miss me?, Isaac Gómez builds their story around the relationship between two sisters, one a medical professional who cared for the siblings’ abusive mother in her final days and the other a disaffected drifter who falls prey to the blandishments of a member of an insurgent cult. The play is a familial drama framed by the consequences of a violent act, and while its backdrop politics are sketchy, its vital characters and the combustion they engender make for compelling, relatable drama.
The play takes place in El Paso, Texas, where a recent bombing has claimed the lives of five people. Only one saboteur, the angry unsettled Belinda (Elizabeth Ramos), has been apprehended. Bailed out by her sister Rosalie (Anna LaMadrid), a nurse practitioner, she arrives — in an ankle bracelet — for the first time in years at their family home.
The bickering and recriminations commence right away between Rosalie, who lives according to society’s rules, and the rebellious Belinda who never has. At first it seems there’s no love lost between these women, but the more we listen in, the more we understand how diversely entangled they actually are.
These scenes alternate with sequences of Belinda at work in a retail warehouse where she meets the somewhat older Erica (Kim Griffin). Tough-talking, White and working class — as opposed to Belinda, an insecure Latina struggling with her heritage — Erica employs flattery to bring the needy Belinda under her purview. What starts out as a bonding between co-workers builds to much more — exactly how much we learn only later in the play.
Directed by Jess McLeod, RADICAL is a character-driven play that offers persuasive portraits of three troubled women, while also highlighting the intricacies and ambivalences that so often characterize the bond between siblings. One of the story’s more salient elements is its illustration of how an emotionally deprived individual can be persuaded to beliefs and actions whose ramifications he or she does not understand. On the other hand, the play would be far more impactful if we were given a clearer idea of why the insurgent group in question has been moved to radical protest. Vague references to a mayor to whom they object aren’t really sufficient explanation; I found myself wanting more.
All three performances are solid. As Erica, Griffin is creepily predacious as she not-so-subtly slithers her way into Belinda’s affections. LaMadrid’s Rosalie is a chromatic portrait of a beleaguered individual doing her best in trying circumstances. Ramos takes a bit more time to find her footing as Belinda, but her performance coheres soon enough. One issue that may relate: The play opens at a high pitch, leaving not much room for emotional fireworks to build. Some directorial finessing — letting the tension simmer longer (as opposed to having it explode at the top) — would enhance the production and perhaps lend support to this performance.
A final glitch: It’s not immediately clear (or at least it wasn’t to me) that the scenes between Erica and Belinda transpire prior to Belinda’s arrival at her childhood home — one reason being that the workplace sequences are played out on the same set as the domestic ones, i.e., the interior family home. Scenic designer Nicholas Ponting has used every inch of a wide proscenium to create an effectively detailed imagining of a modest lower middle-class household (replete with a couple of pictures of Jesus), but a clearer scenic distinction between the warehouse and Rosalie’s living room would certainly have sharpened the storytelling.
IAMA Theatre Company, Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave, Atwater. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 2 pm, Mon., 8 pm, Thurs., Dec. 7, dark Nov. 20 & 24 ; thru Dec. 10. iamatheatre.com Running time: approximately 85 minutes with no intermission.
