Playwright: Melinda Lopez
At: Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted
Contact: ( 312 ) 335-1650; $20-$65
Runs through: Feb. 4
The urgent necessity of forgiveness lies at the heart of Sonia Flew, Melinda Lopez' emotionally ambitious new play. But it can be hard to find that heart in the drama directed with grace and subtlety by Jessica Thebus.
There's a whole catalogue of conflict going on in the family at hand. Major issues surrounding religion; the impact of 9/11 in both practical and emotional terms; World War II; the loss of children; assimilation; and the nature of therapy itself crowd to the fore. There are too many paths being traveled here, with each one going in a slightly different direction. The net result is that it's difficult to get anywhere definitive.
By throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the mix of issues the family of the titular Sonia must contend with, Lopez distracts from what should be the cut-to-the-quick theme.
Even so, Sonia Flew is a rich, worthwhile journey, propelled by a performance of depth, nuance and luminous humanity by Sandra Marquez as Sonia, and complemented by a quietly moving turn by Jeff Still as Sonia's aptly-named husband Daniel.
Sonia is one of Cuba's Peter Pan children—one of 14,000 young people secretly flown to the United States after the Communist takeover in 1960. Parents making the wrenching decision to put their children on airplanes toward a foreign land held out hope that the separation would be temporary; however, in many cases it was permanent.
Standing before a home framed by ice crystals ( Stephan Mazurek's projections, which also include scenes of Cuba in the second act of the production, create moods and worlds of ambiance ) , Sonia intones with the conviction of fire that she will never forgive her parents for sending her away.
And while she insists to her family—daughter Jen ( Sandra Delgado ) , a high school senior; son Zak ( Andrew Perez ) , a Brown student; and husband Daniel ( Still ) —that she has left Cuba firmly in a closed, meaningless past, it's clear that Sonia is defined and haunted by her experiences.
In the second act, the scene switches from Sonia and Daniel's Minneapolis home to 1961 Havana, where we meet the young Sonia ( Delgado ) and witness the slow, insidious climate of fear and danger that force her parents ( Alan Wilder and Vilma Silva ) to send her away. Marquez switches gears entirely to play a housekeeper whose husband has been taken away by Castro's thugs for questioning.
It's in this act that Sonia Flew clarifies and reaches its emotional peaks. A subsequent flash-forward to a present-day gravesite in the United States resolves everything tidily for Sonia and her family, but seems like a limp postscript to the earlier scenes in Cuba.
Sonia Flew is flawed, but it resounds with emotional truth.