Reviewed by Marie J. Kilker
One can see why the original title
was Melt,
because that's what Cuban, Black American, and Jewish families do in
contemporary Miami. A city of changes, more often too rapid than not for older
residents. It's where seamstress Marta came as a child fleeing the Cuban
revolution, had her son Luis-now a successful businessman aiding developers,
lost her husband and is about to be lost to cancer, without a hint of
grandchildren to come. She resists treatment, though understood and helped by
African American nurse Jackson. His sister Adelle, about to receive a rarely
given prestigious award for her pro-bono legal work for poor people being made
poorer and displaced, will clash with Luis. Nor is Adelle completely happy with
her brother. He's living with Leo Chasen, a high school English teacher who's
hesitated to tell his father Isaac about the possibility of he and Jackson
adopting a son from Latin America. In the early stages of Alzheimer's, Isaac
wishes he'd been a bigger success as he was in Cuba. Still, even underemployed,
he has come a long way from being forbidden as a Jew to use the beaches. He
cherishes memories of his rebel of a wife. Because she up and left him and
young Leo, their son doesn't recall her. How will the oldsters meet the
challenges ahead? Will the young people cherish their heritages yet adapt to
present realities and also be forces for positive change? Playwright Michael
McKeever resists
complexities in exploring motives and actions of the young Miamians. He does,
though, conclude the lives of parents Marta and Isaac in ways bittersweet and
sweetly memorable. (To his credit, even though he brings them together in one
scene, he doesn't have them slip contrivedly into more than a nodding
acquaintance.)
Smoothly
Kate Alexander
never draws attention to shifts between direct address to the audience and
dramatized scenes. She also could not have better cast and directed her actors.
Marina Re is
so appealing as spunky Marta that one is sorry whenever she leaves the stage. David
Perez-Ribada
really seems like her son. As Isaac, Jon Kohler touchingly makes the transition
from one mired in memories to a vacant-eyed but still lovingly connected
father. Kenajuan Bentley never seems to be acting as Jackson, whether showing love for his
sister (striking, poised Laquayva Anthony) or Leo. Both men carried off their
parts as gay men with dignity and normality. The difficulties come from the
problems in the young people's lives not being more complexly explored,
especially the topics of gay adoption and, in the case of Adelle, her personal
life and career outside of her concerns with the problems of Overtown. Since
the drama is not a heavy one and has touches of humor, it's easy to like what
one sees and not want to probe deeper into McKeever's characters and whether or
not their Miami is on its way to a Meltdown. One wonders how this mild
multiculturalism would play for audiences outside the Sunshine State.
Credit
for the Art Deco set goes to Nayna Ramey; the Florida lighting, to Marty
Vreeland; realistic costumes, to Marcella Beckwith; to Karin Ivester for stage
management. Time: 2 hrs., 10 mins. with an intermission.