By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO–T.C. Boyle’s best selling novel Tortilla Curtain has been adapted to stage by Matthew Spangler (he adapted the popular novel The Kite Runner into a stage play) and the San Diego Repertory Theatre is giving it its first airing. Now in a ninety-minute long (It seemed much longer to this viewer) world-premiere production Tortilla Curtain, under the broad direction of artistic director Sam Woodhouse, has the look of taking on the entire illegal immigration conundrum through two very different lenses. This is no easy task even though the characters are stereotypes and the play itself is characterized as parody and satire. Frankly it’s a sad commentary of things past and those to come.
Before the play even begins we in the audience are taken on a scenic drive through Topanga Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains (Ian Wallace projection design) to get an idea of the terrain in those hills. Wallace is also credited for the multi-layered set with promontories and crevices and different levels of living conditions used to compare the have’s and have not’s of the folks we are about to meet up with in the play.
Delaney Mossbacher (Mike Sears) is a nature writer who lives with his second wife Kyra (Lisel Gorell-Getz does yeoman’s work as many characters), her 6-year-old son from a former marriage, her matching terriers and her Siamese cat in the posh and gated (or soon to be) community of Arroyo Blanco overlooking Topanga Canyon. She is a successful realtor and busy, busy busy!
Just below them, hidden in the crevices of the canyon’s terrain undocumented and on the run Cándido Rincón (Kinan Valdez) and his common law and pregnant wife América (Vivia Font) are living hunkered down in the brush, hoping to find day jobs to save enough money to rent a place of their own and eventually become part of the American Dream.
Delaney and Cándido met suddenly one summer night in 1995. While Delaney was driving home from a recycling center through the hills maneuvering a dangerous curve on the two-lane part of the roadway, Cándido was on his way back to the canyon racing across the same stretch of highway and the two collided. Delaney’s car hit and threw Cándido across the roadway and into some brush injuring him in the ribs and according to Delaney, ‘his face was raw and there was blood everywhere’. Stunned, both are shaken, but for different reasons.
And so the back-to-back reenactments of how this and every other conflicting altercation happened throughout the play is played out on many levels in Boyle’s piece. Delaney looks out at the audience and recalls the accident including the fact that the victim did not understand English, refused to go to the hospital but took a $20.00 bill to cover expenses when nothing else worked.
Then Cándido tells his side of the story: “Chingoa…what happened? One minute I’m walking across the road, the next I am skidding on dirt. Then I see the pink-faced gabacho who ran me down. I want to punch him in the face…” He then staggers back to the canyon and passes out but not before América calls Delaney a racist culero (you can look that one up yourself). América takes the $20.00 bill and heads out to get medical supplies.
Illegal immigration and what to about ‘it’ and how to solve ‘it’, is cause for discussion among politicians whenever an election is around the corner. The arguments most tossed back and forth are of course centered on ‘solutions’ according to who is making the argument.
Tortilla Curtain was released just as California voters were voting to either accept or reject Prop. 187. That’s the inititative that would have restricted illegal immigrants from using public resources such as health care and education. It conjured up some pretty strong emotions. The topic of immigration remains as controversial today as it did then. Everyone has an opinion.
Some are far reaching, like packing them all up and sending them back to their native countries regardless of whether or not they have children born here, to carving out a path for those without criminal activity to start the legal process on the way to citizenship, or a green card.
For the Hispanic population, legal or not, this community is treading on some very dangerous grounds given the racial profiling and angst about jobs in our tenuous economy today. Just look at some of the outrageous laws on the books in other states, in particular Arizona.
Then there is Delaney. When we first meet him, it’s safe to say that Delaney doesn’t have a problem for or about immigration, (Sears is so soft spoken and sincere about beliefs) but his neighbors do. His friend Jack (David Meyers) is a poster child for all the wrong reasons as to why we should ‘kill them all’ and his son Jack, Jr. (Jeremy Kahn) is no better as he acts out horrific acts behind everyone’s back (and while portraying several characters as part of the ensemble).
In the meantime the housing association in Delaney’s complex votes overwhelmingly to put a wall up around the development to keep the illegals out, something Delaney is vehemently opposed to. Ironically, Cándido gets hired to work on the wall enabling him to save enough money (from the very same association that wants to keep him out,) to help get América the apartment they so desperately need. It also allows them to buy food and water and, just survive. Aha, the games we play!
But things begin to happen to upset Delaney’s peaceful and rural lifestyle at several junctions of his life like when he is accosted and roughed up by some rogue, Spanish-speaking thugs (Jeremy Kahn and Miles Gaston Villanueva) who frighten the bejeezers out of him and steal his Lexus SUV while he is out hiking in the canyon below his gated community.
By now Delaney is convinced that all of this is happening because of the illegals especially the man he struck down whom he thinks wants revenge. We watch as his opinions about the immigration start to change. Racism rears its ugly head and he is convinced by Jack to buy a gun to defend himself.
At the same time, the same troublemakers show up at Cándido’s campsite and a fight breaks out there. Cándido puts the blame on Delaney. And so it goes, and goes and goes. But as it goes, the terrain gets rougher and rougher. One disaster leads to another, and there are many throughout the play, and the two adversaries are now miles and miles apart from any sort of understanding that might open a dialogue and before we know it the central characters morph into people we don’t like nor do we recognize any more.
Boyle’s characters are reduced to such one dimension look-a likes that it’s difficult to find anything redeeming about them. Delaney seems so accepting and reasonable in the beginning that his transformation comes on so fast that one has to wonder if he was for real to begin with. Mike Sears is most convincing as he shows both sides of himself to us especially as he falls down that narrow path called intolerance.
Kinan Valdez, who has appeared at the San Diego Rep. as part of the Teatro Compensino, is a stand out actor but again, his Cándido is so comic book predictable that it’s difficult to feel for him as it is Font’s América. She too seems to go through the motions of a neglected yet abused wife and day worker but elicits little sympathy. All three are at the top of their acting game and deserve better.
Fine support comes from Lisel Gorell-Getz, David Meyers, Miles Gaston Villanueva and Jeremy Kahn as part of the ensemble playing everything from male tourist to gang members to neighbors to the checkout girl in the gun store to lovers to news anchors to firefighters.
Give the production values high grades with Valerie Henderson’s costume designs, Jennifer Setlow’s lighting, Tom Jones sound, and James Newcomb as flight choreographer. Overall the acting is flawless. Director Woodhouse manages to keep the pace moving along at a nice clip. The points made are redundant but well taken. The symbolism is in your face smart but please don’t hit me over the head with it.
The San Diego Repertory Theatre has long been recognized, as the premiere theatre in San Diego to bring cultural issues to the fore with 41 main stage productions by Latino playwrights including Luis Valdez whose Zoot Suit will be part of next seasons listing. In 1993 the Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival began and is still going strong and for 19 years the Rep. has sponsored the Kuumba fest. Its mission statement claims to… promote provocative theatre… and celebrate the multiple voices of our region.” That it does.
Here’s a bit of irony; members of that same political party that wants to ship those Hispanics without green cards back to their own country, is denying the DREAM Act to make entry legal and is promoting laws that will make them targets of hate, is now proposing that a Hispanic be on their ticket as a Vice Presidential candidate hoping to capture the Hispanic vote in November. WOW!
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through April 8th
Organization: San Diego Repertory
Theatre Phone: 619-544-1000
Where: 79 Horton Plaza 92101, Downtown San Diego
Ticket Prices: $32-$51.
Web: sdrep.org
Venue: Lyceum
*