Playwright: Dana Lynn Formby. At: Mortar Theatre Company at the Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph St. Tickets: 312-742-8497; www.dcatheater.org; $20. Runs through: Sept. 25
Little Ariana has a new doll, but straight out of the box it has a breast burned off and a message inscribed on it in Spanish. Ariana's mom's close friend-or-lover, Denise, determines the doll was manufactured in Mexico and learns that women in Ciudad Juarez are being murdered by the thousands each year.
In Mexico itself another small girl, Mazi, plays with a simpler doll while her doting mother works long hours. And then Mazi disappears when her doll comes to life and she follows Ferdy, a charmingly sinister fantasy figure, into a threatening other reality.
Meanwhile, in Canada (maybe?) 16 year old Sara contends with self-image and school issues, and an early crush on Jake with whom she attends an academic conference against her mother's orders.
The parallel mothers and daughters obviously are meant to relate to each other in this world premiere, but nothing holds together in Dana Lynn Formby's poetical drama, which is vague and suggestive when it needs to be specific. It doesn't follow any one storyline or set of characters to a clear conclusion. The press release says Corazon de Manzana ("apple core" or, figuratively, "heart of the apple") concerns the ongoing femicide in Juarez, but you don't get that from the play because focus shifts too much with insufficient factual information.
Too many questions are left unanswered: Are Denise and Callie (Ariana's mom) lovers? Do Mazi and her Mom live in Juarez? Is Mazi kidnapped and murdered? If so, what's the point of disguising the action as a fairytale fantasy? Why is their no consequence to Denise's pursuit of the subject?
Instead, Formby drops exposition bombs as if the connections are obvious, which they are not. Ariana's mom lost a job when her factory moved to Juarez under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and NAFTA is raised as boogie but never connected to anything. A hint is dropped that, maybe, Juarez women will work for less than men and so are being killed, but there's no evidence or follow-up discussion. Late in Act II, the play reveals that Sara had a heart transplant and just possibly received Mazi's heart. If Formby means to suggest that Mexican women are being killed by a black-market organ-selling ring, then she needs to say so.
It's not enough for Formby to be interested in her subject or passionate about it if she can't convey information to us with force and clarity. She and director Jason Boat use visual tools of theater very well (video, choreography, lighting), and I have no complaints about the performers. But I can't see the pattern in this patchwork quilt in which poetical and political don't mix effectively, and the storyline don't solidly connect.