The Blade of Jealousy
Reviewed by Lara J. Altunian
Whitefire Theatre
Through August 25
Henry Ong’s The Blade of Jealousy — a reimagining of Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina’s Celosa de si Misma — is a madcap comedy about envy, deception and the obsession with outer beauty. Unfortunately, setting the story in modern day Los Angeles fails to make it more relatable to audiences, and causes more logistical problems instead. The result is a slow and somewhat disjointed tale that makes all of the characters unlikeable and concludes with few positive pointers about overcoming shallowness.
Melchor (Terry Woodberry) and his buddy Ventura (Eddie Mui) move to L.A. from Cedar Rapids so that he can meet and marry Magdalena (Natalie Amenula), a woman he’s been sexting with. The two have never exchanged pictures. On arrival, the men enter the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels where Melchor is instantly entranced by a woman wearing a hijab (referred to as a burqa in the play). He falls in love with her instantly and unabashedly decides to abandon his plans to marry Magdalena without realizing that Magdalena and this stranger are the same person. He even goes so far as to call Magdalena ugly when, later, he meets her without her head covering. This leads Magdalena to become jealous of “the lady in the burqa,” and therefore jealous of herself.
Though the concept is clever (and using L.A. as a backdrop for discussing superficiality may be apropos), some of the core elements of the story feel forced. For example, the farce turns on Magdalena’s concealment of her face. But the reason given — that she’s a Catholic but wears a hijab as a way to market her inclusive clothing line — is so flimsy and weak that it undermines the entire plot. And it’s also hard to believe that Melchor is unable to recognize her through the sheer fabric of her veil.
Ong endeavors to give the narrative a contemporary twist by making Magdalena’s maid, Quinones (Cynthia Dane) an immigrant who wants to become a citizen. But the ensuing subplot, in which she pursues marriage with Ventura, who’s gay, in order to achieve this aim is highly problematic. His decision to go along with her plan because he’s down on his luck with love and so “might as well make himself useful” strikes one as tragic rather than funny. And Quinones promise that he can “have” her 10-year-old nephew once the boy’s no longer a minor comes off as twisted.
One promising subplot involves a jealous woman named Angela (Carla Valina), eager to please Melchor by dressing up in a hijab and attempting to fool him into thinking that she is the original “lady in the burqa.” But hardly has this thread been unspooled when the story is rushed to a speedy conclusion — literally announced by Magdalena’s brother Jeronimo (Juan Haro) — whose only real purpose is to give Angela a happy ending so that Melchor and Magdalena can have theirs.
No one suffers any consequences, which makes the entire tale amusing, but renders the ending bland. All six characters are paired off (willingly or unwillingly) and any deeper message is dispensed with as each couple leaps into marriage without knowing much of anything about their future mate.
Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; Sun., 7 p.m.; through August 25. (818) 634-8464 or https://thebladeofjealousy.brownpapertickets.com/. Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
