Playwright: Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas
At: Teatro Vista at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St.
Phone: ( 312 ) 494-5767; $22
Runs through: March 5
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
Federico García-Lorca characterized the duende as the fury that compels otherwise rational human beings to abandon their reason and act on their passions, even at risk of death—an impulse that its author, a homosexual male in a repressive society, likely knew well. But in this world premiere play by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, there are TWO duendes, for sweet freedom often comes tinged with nostalgia for the safety of slavery.
At first glance, however, we almost think we have stumbled on a Mel Brooks-style parody of García-Lorca's gloomy tragedies. The first scenes depict a stony-faced matriarch sharpening knives in the kitchen, while her younger son, bullied by his slovenly brother, finds solace in conversation with an invisible companion dwelling at the bottom of the well. But then we meet our sensitive hero's spinster aunt, who, under an assumed identity, has set up a clinic for the treatment of syphilis—a profitable enterprise that immediately distinguishes her as a survivor, even after a hurricane sweeps the land bare and her nephew's underground comrade surfaces to set things right. Perhaps.
Director Loy Arcenas is no stranger to the magic lurking in the most squalid of existences, and for this production by Teatro Vista—celebrating its 15th season—he and his actors amplify the romance of Cortiñas' florid lyricism while sacrificing none of the earthy, even vulgar, humor employed by the irreverent Lucero—played by Marvin Eduardo Quijada with the seductive malevolence of a Goya imp—to conjure his liberating mischief. Completing the ensemble are Laura Crotte as the imperious 'Mother of the Late Afternoon,' Lisa Tejero as the resourceful Aunt Bolivia, Peter Fitzsimmons as the loutish Gordi ( whose name means 'fatso' ) and Marcus Castillo as the gullible Reiderico.
Together they weave a spell so delicately alluring that even in the moments when Cordiñas' metaphors threaten to overpower the plot, we never cease to care about the fates of the desperadoes for whom the sensible course is not enough. But be careful what you wish for, especially if a duende offers to give it to you.