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Blind Mouth Singing
By Jorge Ignacio Cortinas
Directed by Loy Arcenas
Produced by Teatro Vista Theatre
At Chopin Theatre
1543 W. Division Street
Chicago, IL
Call 312-494-5767, tickets $22
Thursdays & Fridays at 8 PM
Saturdays at 5 & 8:30 PM
Sundays at 4 PM
Running time 2 hrs, 10 min with intermission
Through March 5, 2006
Blind Mouth Singing soars as Latino fable
Teatro Vista Theatre With a View, the only Latino Equity theatre company in the Midwest, offers a treat for theatre patrons with Jorge Ignacio Cortinas’ Blind Mouth Singing now in a World Premiere at Chopin Theatre. This is my first viewing of a Teatro Vista show and I was impressed with the stellar production qualities of the show. Brian Sidney Bembridge’s large scale wooden set aptly suggesting a rural setting with a small house and a functioning well and Misha Fiksel and Andres Plues eerie sound design together with Jesse Klug’s lighting colored the show with enough atmosphere setting the mood of isolation necessary for Cortinas’ fable set in 1940’s in a rural inland Cuban village. Director Loy Arcenas’ smoothly paced work has a mystical feel that is enticing.
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With hints of Pinter and Beckett, Cortinas’ engrossing story is rich in metaphors and symbolism with sprinkles of dark humor and melancholy. We are swept into the rural Latino village (Cuba?) where we meet “Mother of the Late Afternoon” (Laura Crotte) who rules her family with a strictness designed to thwart her boy’s hopes and dreams. Her two sons, one a stupid, macho, rough rouge, Gordi (Peter Fitzsimmons) and the other, Reiderico (Marcus Castillo), a sensitive, gentle, caring, gay boy, each attempting to survive in the stifling boredom of the house. Gordi tortures his sibling because he doesn’t know how to communicate his frustrations.
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Reiderico retreats into his own world by talking to his alter-ego who lives at the bottom of the well. Lucero (Marvin Edward Quijada), is the charming, devilish boy who cons Reidrico into changing places with him so he can escape both the well and the house. Mother, Gordi and aunt Bolivia (Lisa Tejero) don’t notice the exchange since both boys look similar.
Bolivia temporarily escapes the house by daily treating syphilis sufferers in the village as she becomes know as “the spinster from Calcutta.” She earns money and a sense of independence as she yearns to leave for the city to fulfill her dreams. Mother doesn’t understand Reiderico’s gentleness and she is bitter because her husband abandoned the family years ago.
The conversations between Reiderico and Lucero are quite homoerotic as both seem to trying to discover their true identity. Gaining the courage to listen to your inter voice in pursuit of your dreams is Cortinas’ main theme. Lucero (now pretending to be Reiderico) convinces Bolivia to escape with him to the city but Reiderico and Gordi separately try to stop the escape.
Filled with fluid dialogue and rich symbolism, Blind Mouth Singing features empathetic characters such as Bolivia, in a haunting performance by Lisa Tejero and the gentle touch Marcus Castillo gives Reiderico. Peter Fitzsimmons combines cruel boyish angst and sexual frustration while Marvin Edward Quijada plays Lucero oozing with charm and guile. Laura Crotte nicely gives Mother a combination of negativity and loneliness.
Blind Mouth Singing is rich in atmosphere that pulls us into the world of rural Cuba where the struggle for personal identity and self-worth are played out in a surreal fable that is enchanting. The play has a charm that is arresting as it offers a fresh twist on the never-ending quest to define who we truly are. This is intelligent storytelling with empathetic characters. Jorge Ignacio Cortinas is a playwright to keep an eye on. This show is a treat.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago Radio show
This show is eligible for a C.S.T. Equity Theatre Award
February 7, 2006
Jeff Recommended
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