AISLE SAY Boston

SONIA FLEW

by Melinda Lopez
Directed by Nicholas Martin
Huntington Theatre Company
at the Wimberly in the Calderwood Pavilion
BCA, 539 Tremont Boston / (617) 266 - 0800
through Nov. 28

Reviewed by Will Stackman

Presenting a world premiere to inaugurate a new theatrical space is not that unusual. However in this instance, the new play is "Sonia Flew" by local Cuban-American actress/playwright, Melinda Lopez, one of the first four Huntington Playwriting Fellows. Lopez's earlier one woman show, "Media Noche" received a Kennedy Center Award, to go with her Norton for Best Solo show, and her "How Do You Spell Hope", a biodrama about Fredrick Douglass aimed at encouraging reading,has toured schools in the Northeast as a production of the Underground Railway Theatre. The space is the new 380 seat proscenium theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts Calderwood Theatre Pavilion, in a new mixed-use highrise next to the BCA headquarters, the historic Cyclorama Building. Her director is Nicholas Martin, known for his work at Williamstown and on Broadway before he became the Artistic Director of B.U.'s Huntington Theatre Company. With a first rate cast, this fully realized production, and the new hall jointly run by the BCA and the Huntington, live up to expectations.

Lopez's almost too economically constructed script starts in Dec. 2001, barely four months after 9/11/2001 in the Minneapolis home of public defender Sonia played by award-winning actress Carmen Roman with an impressive career in New York and Chicago. Daniel, her psychologist husband, is played by Boston's own Norton recognized, Jeremiah Kissel, who almost managed to steal "A Month in the Country" during his last Huntington appearance opposite Lopez. Their children, Jen and Zak, are played by Tisch grad Amelia Alvarez and peripetatic young rep actor Ivan Quintanilla. The occasion is the arrival of Daniel's father, Sam, from Miami for Hanukkah, played by ART stalwart and Norton awardee Will LeBow. There's a Christmas tree in one corner and Sabbath is about to start. Plus Zak is trying to tell his Mother that he's dropping out of Brown to join the Marines in response to the growing world crisis. Life is getting to be too much for Sonia, who was sent out of Cuba by her parents in 1961 at age 15. Director Nicholas Martin's deft touch at realism plus the effortless ensemble of the cast makes the first act's domestic drama quite believable, especially to audience's used to the tropes of contemporary film and television. Lopez, drawing on her emigre community, has made a canny choice in setting up her drama.

Upon arriving in their seats, the audience sees a bare stage backed by photorealistic clouds in blue sky. A neon sign reading AVIONES hangs midstage. As the brief prologue begins, the stage floor is covered with fog and a young woman appears, sprinkling flower petals as on a grave, speaking with despair. As she exits, the back wall opens revealing 55 year old Sonia bustling about her suburban house which rolls forward into the rapidly exhausted fog. The HTC hasn't stinted on technical effort for this premiere. For the second act, set in 1961, designer Adam Stockhausen, who previously set "Breathe Boom" and "Ten Unknowns" on the Huntington main stage, rolls out the kitchen of Sonia's Havana birthplace, shortly after the Cuban Revolution. Roman, now playing Marta, an elderly neighbor staying with the family, is again bustling about.

All the members of the ensemble play different roles in each act. Zabryna Guevara, who was the most dynamic character in "Breathe Boom" enters as Pilar, Sonia's mother. Guevara is seen briefly at the end of first act as a female military truck driver in a convoy with Sonia's son Zak, now presumably in Afghanistan. Her natural dynamism lifts the opening of the second act as she describes vamping the baker to sell her treats for Sonia's 15th birthday party. Sonia, a teenager enthused by the revolution, played by Alvarez soon appears, followed by her father, Orfeo, an engineering professor, played by LeBow. Kissel returns as cousin Tito, an apparatchic, spying on friend and foe alike. The suppressed tension in the first act, post 9/11/2001, is replaced by much more palpable dangers of lawless revolution. When Sonia witnesses violence at a rally, the family sends her to America by devious means. The teenager leaves feeling betrayed, feelings she never forgets or forgives. These haunt her, coming to the fore when Zak joins the Marines against her wishes. Quintanilla incidentally shows up briefly at the rally as young Sonia's Cuban boyfriend. Kristin Glans' costumes for this act catch the spirit of the era as does the first act's contemporary styles. Obie winner Frances Aronson's lighting nicely distinguishes between dim and sweltering Havana and brightly lit but colder Minneapolis. Drew Levy's various sound effects are vital to several moments in the play.

The resolution of the action in what amounts to a epilogue sometime in 2002 will occasion some disagreement. Heralded by "Taps" and played with only a funeral wreath on the once again bare stage, the final revelation could have been set up a bit more clearly during Zak's inset scenes. But its ambiguity is supported by the emotional turmoil which is the basis for Sonia's personal drama. Lopez has taken material which could have generated a full-length novel and created a moral puzzle. She asks the unanswerable question, "Are there actions in a family that can't be forgiven, and may only be forgotten? " These may of course return to haunt all concerned. In "Sonia Flew", for once a newly developed script doesn't need pruning or rewritten scenes, but perhaps only a bit more detail, a slight loosening here and there. The force of the action would not be diminished by taking just a bit more time, which could be well spent contemplating this drama.

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