There is a great deal happening on the Main Stage of the Cherry Lane Theatre through April 1. Most of what is happening is the clear intent of the creative team of “Teresa’s Ecstasy,” the play by Begonya Plaza which is currently playing there. However, there is a significant amount happening which might not be at all in the intent of the selfsame creative team. And that is the problem with the slick production presented by Avila Productions: does the audience see the play Ms. Plaza wrote or the play performed ostensibly from her script?
On the surface, the play is about Carlotta (Begonya Plaza) traveling with her lesbian assistant Becky (Linda Larkin) on their way to Avila to research an article on the play’s namesake Teresa of Avila. Carlotta makes a quick stopover in her former home Barcelona to serve her husband Andres (Shawn Elliott) with divorce papers. Because the airline failed to match her luggage with her flight, Carlotta and Becky have to extend their stay and need to spend the night at Andres’s apartment. (Yes, Carlotta and Andres end up having sex for old time’s sake: let’s get that “conclusion drawing” out of the way). Back to the plot, driven by Carlotta’s internal conflict about her true identity and her external conflict with Andres who still loves her. Andres doesn’t understand Carlotta’s need to go to Avila (and, unfortunately, neither does the discerning audience member) and hopes their lost love can be rekindled on this airline-bonus stay over.
This is where the aforementioned problem begins. Although Carlotta goes to Avila with Becky (this character needs a new name?), the result is not an article about Theresa but awareness on Carlotta’s part of her true sexual status: Carlotta is a lesbian. Becky is a lesbian. Carlotta and Becky are now an item and return to Barcelona to share this good news (and it is good news as all transformative knowledge is) with Andres who has experienced his own (equally significant) ecstatic moment: he is a talented painter, a loving human being, and a husband looking to re-connect with his estranged wife.
Enough plot summary! The readers will experience the rest when they see the play. And this play is worth seeing. The summary was provided to support the thesis of this review: the play can be about more than the playwright intended and that is somewhat problematic. Andres’s ecstasy seems more important than Carlotta’s. The characterization of Andres would allow him to embrace Carlotta’s self-discovery. There is nothing in the characterization of Andres that would suggest otherwise; however, when Carlotta returns to him and shares her good news, Andres pouts and spouts (completely out of character) homophobic drivel.
From the opening scene, Andres, brilliantly played by Shawn Elliott, is the superego of the play: he is intuitive, brilliant, perceptive, and completely loveable. As portrayed by Mr. Elliott, Andres is articulate and believable. When Elliott’s Andres speaks the audience feels they are intruding into an authentic conversation. There is not a dissembling bone in this accomplished actor’s body! In fact, and here is the “rub,” this is Andres’s play, his ecstasy, his coming-of-age – not Carlotta’s.
Andres makes a blender of gazpacho for Carlotta (a veggie fest for old time’s sake) and the symbol of that gazpacho is perhaps more telling than the sum of all the severed and dispersed body parts of Teresa of Avila. The play’s title word ‘ecstasy’ might contribute to the confusion. At heart the Greek work ‘ekstasis’ simply means “any casting down of a thing from its proper place or state.” Teresa’s ecstasy, and Carlotta’s, casts down heteronormative conscripts and allows her to be who she is. However, Andres’s ecstasy is more universal and therefore more accessible to the audience: Andres simply casts down from its “proper place” all societal norms and constructs and inhibitions and creates an ecstasy palatable for all humankind despite race or color or ethnicity or creed or sex or sexual status.
What would truly disturb Andres was that his wife came back from Avila “empty-handed.” The issue was not that she returned to Barcelona a lesbian in seven days but that the time she spent in the cathedral and standing before Teresa’s severed emerald-bedecked finger and writings did not net more transformative results. In short, Andres’s ecstasy is more profound than that of his wife.
Ms. Plaza’s play remains a play of substance despite its flaws. The opening dialogue seems a bit stilted, particularly as it is juxtaposed with Andres’s natural rhythms and intonations. Perhaps director Pomeranrz whose hand skillfully guides this production could address this unfortunate reality.
The play’s strength proceeds from the performance of Mr. Elliott and his character Andres. Unfortunately, the play as written seems not to be about this renaissance painter and thinker. Perhaps Ms. Plaza should step back from the role of Carlotta and gain some new perspective on her protagonist. It is simply difficult to perform in a drama one has written no matter what anyone says. Most unfortunate is the flat character of Becky. As played by Ms. Larkin, this Becky is annoying, static, and not the kind of person anyone would leave one’s life partner for – straight or gay or bi. This reviewer lived in the hope Becky might remain with her Barcelona business partner Paco and not return to the action of the play.
We all need to cast down things from their proper place (that is, experience ecstasy). “Teresa’s Ecstasy” might just equip us to begin that kind of necessary transformative journey. For that reason alone, Ms. Plaza’s play is worth the look. See it before April 1. And that is no April Fools prank.
TERESA’S ECSTACY
Written by Begonya Plaza. Directed by Will Pomerantz. Presented by Avila Productions LLC by special arrangement with The Cherry Lane Theatre. Set design by Adrian W. Jones. Costume design by Suzanne Chesney. Lighting design by Scott Clyve. Sound design by Jane Shaw with original music by Albert Carbonell. Stage management by Michael Alifanz. At The Cherry Lane Theatre, (38 Commerce Street, just west of 7th Avenue, in Greenwich Village). The performance schedule is Tuesday - Saturday at 8 PM; Sunday at 7 PM. For tickets, which are $60, call OvationTix at 212-352-3101 or online at www.cherrylanetheatre.org.
Permalink | Posted by David Roberts on Wednesday, March 14, 2012
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