Review of 'Lydia' at the Mark Taper Forum

 

Magical realism meets telenovela in Octavio Solis’ “Lydia,” an anguish-drenched domestic elegy that’s as haunting and lyrical as it is rambling and overwrought. What begins with the delicate sense of ghostly footsteps takes on an increasingly melodramatic tread as the story of family members still reeling from a tragic accident that incapacitated their lovely teenage daughter spins in rather unexpected psychosexual directions.
 
Anxiety of influence obviously isn’t a problem for Solis, whose play opened Wednesday at the Mark Taper Forum under the direction of Juliette Carrillo. The work, which tries to make room for the erotic combustion of Ingmar Bergman and the American-dream deconstructions of Clifford Odets and Arthur Miller, reveals a sensibility that doesn’t want to leave anything out. (Should I even mention the allusions to “A Streetcar Named Desire”?)  The result is a satisfying epic fullness but not a whole lot of focus. 
  
Set in the early ’70s, “Lydia” takes place in the living room of the Flores’ El Paso home, where English is the dominant tongue, but Spanish is still liberally spoken. Rosa (Catalina Maynard) and Claudio (Daniel Zacapa), two Mexican immigrants hoping to provide their three kids with better economic opportunities, have furnished the place with all the prerequisites of working-class comfort — stereo, comfy armchair, refrigerator stocked with beer. Christopher Acebo's set design is positively picturesque in its retro homeliness.

On a mattress on the floor lies Ceci (Onahoua Rodriguez), a delicate beauty with a scar across her forehead. Sadly, the injury is more than cosmetic: For the last two years, Ceci has been reduced to a near-vegetative state from a car accident when she was in just shy of her 15th birthday.  

Ceci’s two brothers could hardly be more temperamentally different.  Misha (Carlo Albán), the youngest, is extremely sensitive; he’s a writer in-the-making and, with puberty stirring in him, an incipient lover too.  Menacing and violent, Rene (Tony Sancho), who's involved in criminal activity (possibly gay-bashing), seems mired in guilt about his sister's accident as well as something unresolved in his own identity.   

The Flores family moves in mournful circles around Ceci’s marooned and helpless body, but when the lights change in Carrillo’s poetic staging, this broken teen resumes the gift of speech and unobstructed movement. She also develops a girly, other-worldly lilt to her voice and an ability to see exactly what’s going on with everyone around her. Yet like Cassandra of ancient Greek mythology, her prophetic words aren’t easy for us to decipher. 
  
Sensing that it’s time to restart her working life out of the house, Rosa has announced that a maid is coming from Mexico named Lydia (Stephanie Beatriz), who’s young and just as beautiful as Ceci. Lydia needs a place to live and in exchange will anticipate the household needs and desires with an intuition that recalls all those old tales of magical nannies.  

Lydia identifies with Ceci and recognizes the blossoming of her womanhood. In fact, Lydia seems to be attuned to all of the latent sexual currents around her, an earthy wisdom that eventually provokes dangerous passion and lust as well as resentment and distrust.
 
Surely, there’s enough material already for several plays, but Solis grafts another limb of plot, with the issue of legal immigration coming to the fore. This occurs when cousin Alvaro (Max Arciniega) returns home from Vietnam and joins the border patrol — a choice that feels like a betrayal to the Floreses, especially because Claudio’s legal status is fuzzy while Lydia’s is being covered up by Rosa. 

Solis keeps shifting the center of his dramatic attention, as though he doesn’t want to be accused of falling into a familiar genre. If the play belonged to Misha, it could be another portrait of a writer as a young man. Rene’s homophobia propels us in one predictable direction; Ceci’s condition blows us in another. Meanwhile, the family’s social and psychological predicaments could engender any one of many issue-oriented story lines.
 
By not choosing, Solis eludes clichéd traps. But he also fails to fulfill the expectation that a dramatist will select and distill his life-plucked, creatively burnished data into a streamlined vision. If Solis’ scenes weren’t so rich with emotional longing and buoyant theatricality, there wouldn’t be a need to propound the point. But the fertility of his imagination — which is equally at home in Spanish or English, realism or surrealism — cries out for more discipline. 

The best thing about “Lydia” is the way it encloses the audience in its heartbroken world. And Carrillo’s cast members, while they could be better deployed to help the audience prioritize the narrative strands, do thread themselves into a convincing ensemble.

Maynard’s overworked Rosa, Beatriz’s phantom-like Lydia,  Albán's owl-faced Misha and Rodriguez’s groaning Ceci make lasting impressions in a play that all-too-generously wants to give every character his or her due.

--Charles McNulty

"Lydia,"Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 17.  $20 to $65. (213) 628-2772. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes. 

Top photo: Stephanie Beatriz as Lydia and Carlo Albán as Misha. Bottom photo: Onahoua Rodriguez as Ceci, Carlo Albán as Misha, Catalina Maynard as Rosa and Tony Sancho as Rene. Credit: Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Mark]

Saw this Opening Night. Very powerful. Audience leapt to their feet for ovation at the end. It is heavy, but very engaging and very thought provoking.

Loved it.

[Brandon Maggart]

As a longtime season ticket holder for preview performances at the Taper, I can say that "LYDIA" was the best theatrical experience I've had there in quite some time. I congratulate both Solis and Carrillo for the tension and sometimes baffeling and unexpected turns unfolding before my and my teenage grandson's eyes and ears. High praises to the cast, especially Ms. Rodriguez. Thank you Taper.
Brandon Maggart

[Pete]

I had the pleasure of seeing LYDIA last night and I was in utter amazement. The acting and writing were superb. It took the viewer through a rollerocoster of feelings and emotions. I am still reeling from the play. Definitely go see it if you can.

[Jonathan Ceniceroz]

I saw the play last night and tend to agree with Mr. McNulty. While captivating as an epic piece of dysfunctional Latino art, LYDIA takes its time in settling into just exactly what it wants to be. But then, the play structure reflects the era in which it mimes: the 1970s, when things were hardly perceived as neat and tidy. Still, unlike Bergman, as the reviewer suggests, there isn't enough true theatrical elan to maintain its 2.5 hour running time. It's still a grand play that one should see at least once. In his work, Solis moves forward contemporary Latino theater to a darker, more emotionally satisfying fullness that beckons several witnesses.

[Cynthia]

I loved this play! Glued to my seat the entire time. It's characters were rich and full of surprises. The time flew by! I'm telling all my friends----this is a play not to be missed.

[Jim Holder]

Astounding. One has to imagine Charles McNulty would review the opening night of Long Day's Journey Into Night "as haunting and lyrical as it is rambling and overwrought." Perhaps McNulty has been watching too many sit-coms and 1-hour television dramas where single-themed plots are tied up in a nice bow and in way that doesn't challenge the viewer's intelligence or attention-span. It's amazing how one lazy reviewer from the Times can kill a Pulitizer-Prize nominated effort that should, by all rights, go on to become an American classic. McNulty has everything backwards in focusing his criticism on the playwrighting of all things! This was a beautiful, if imperfect, production of a transcendent play. Telenovela? How about Miller meets Euripides? Get a job, you hack.

[Carol Flint]

The McNulty review almost convinced me not to attend this production. What a terrible mistake that would have been. I loved this play. It's one of the best shows I have seen at the Taper. LA is fortunate to have this riveting, challenging, entertaining production. I cannot believe how utterly McNulty missed it all. And ditto to everything Jim Holder wrote above. This is a show that Los Angeles and the Forum are fortunate to have staged. Fierce, funny, poetic, shocking and well-crafted. See it.

[Jeff]

Unbelievably powerful play... amazing acting.... go see this play....

[Robert Giedt]

Last week I sent the following paragraph to the Times with a cc to Center Theater Group. Your review, published today, was thoughtful and penetrating. I agree with your giving credit to the entire cast for being "a convincing ensemble". But the result was the following:
Only on rare occasions am I compelled to write a letter about a mere stage play, but after experiencing "Lydia" yesterday I must express myself or else vomit. This play was not only a waste of my time and money but also a cause for anger and disgust at the CTG for including it in our subscription series. My wife and I fought our impulse to leave at intermission with the thought that it couldn't get any worse - but we were wrong. It ended in a black pit of disaster with every character choosing to do exactly the worst possible alternative. Whatever critics may find to praise in this mistake, it ain't good theater entertainment.

[Patricia Hunt]

After nearly a week since the appearance of Charles McNulty’s review of Octavio Solis’ Lydia, I have finally composed myself enough to write a response to McNulty’s disturbingly dyspeptic critique. I saw the play twice, once on the first preview night and again on opening night, and both performances were spellbinding theatrical experiences.

Although the narrative is complex, the direction and acting lent those complexities a satisfying coherence. I noted a number of directorial shifts from the preview performance when I attended the opening night, and these changes led to greater focus and also a strengthening of Stephanie Beatriz’s role as Lydia. While in the preview Ceci’s role seemed to dominate, the emergence of Lydia’s “big” personality on the opening night allowed the tragi-comic elements to have full play and both roles benefited from that shift. Despite McNulty’s charge that the characterizations are “all-too-generous,” giving “every character his or her due” in this case led only to a better developed sense of the play’s themes and emotional range of the characterizations as explored in the production.

I can agree with McNulty when he comments that the rich emotionality and “buoyant theatricality” of Solis’ play reflects a fertile imagination, but question what McNulty means when he says that Solis’ fertile imagination calls for more “discipline.” His real complaint appears to be that the play is neither spare nor simple. The emotional and cultural ground of the narrative is multi-dimensional, and the achievement of Solis, Carrillo, and the cast is that they did weave the various narrative threads into a riveting whole. Was McNulty sitting in an uncomfortable seat or feeling the clock ticking as he neared his deadline? Or was it simply his need to fulfill the role of “critic” by interjecting such sour notes into his review? How else could he make the statement that Beatriz’s Lydia was phantom-like when her opening night performance was alive and kicking all the way? Or characterize Rodriguez’s performance of Ceci as “groaning”? I would see the play again without hesitation and recommend it to anyone who enjoys exceptionally fine theater.

[kevin]

This was perhaps the worst play I've seen at the Taper in 20 years. It was three hours long, self-indulgent and unfocused, with most of the actors incomprehensible. The woman playing Solis was uneven and impossible to understand, the plot so unfocused as to make the audience strive constantly to refocus, the ending so "out-of-nowhere" as to be laughable - if it weren't so disgusting. However, at the performance I attended it was not laughable. Most of the audience leapt to their feet...to leave the theatre. The rest sat too insulted to clap. Even the actors came out on stage for the curtain call with long faces, as if to be apologizing for wasting three hours of our time.

[Judith Morton Fraser]

My husband and I saw Lydia on April 21st. I have mixed feelings about the play. I appreciated the Spanish/English use of language as we in L.A. are every mixture imaginable. The content expanded the steriotypical view of Latinos and, just like the mixture of language in the play it highlighted problems that could be a part of any household. Same sex relationships are not one of the problems I'm referring to, but the unacceptance of them is. Driving while drunk is always a problem. Fathers or mothers for that matter who use physical or emotional abuse to keep children in line is always a problem. Gang violence is always a problem. What was missing was someone who could enlighten the family. Perhaps the police could have come, not to take Lydia away, but to force the entire family into counseling.

[Oscar]

My wife and friends went to see this last night. Let me say this - if you wasted your money on this play don't let them waste your time as well. We were compelled to leave but did not at several points in the play - what a mistake it was. Don't make the same mistake. Take in a nice stroll around downtown instead or do something else!

[Spence]

I don’t write reviews, but “Lydia” impelled me to contribute to this thread. I saw the play last night and the immediate word that came to mind this morning (I was glad to see Mr. McNulty use it as well) was “haunting”. As someone who liked the play, I find myself thinking about it again and again. The tone, theme, and characters cannot be described with a single word. I may be mistaking Mr. McNulty’s criticism, but he seems to be saying the major fault with the play is that it is too complex and should instead maintain a narrower focus. I guess there is some truth to this from an academic point of view, but as far as visceral experiences are concerned, “Lydia” delivers a wrenching magical realism narrative that is both melodramatic while also being extremely challenging. The final minutes of the second act are about as cathartic an experience I’ve had at the theater, and when the lights finally went up once the show ended the audience let out a collective sigh-- we were completely spent. There are aspects about this play I would find hard to swallow if done improperly by lesser artists, but the direction, lighting, and above all the acting were, in my opinion, stellar. For those on the fence unsure if they want to attend, check out the review from The Hollywood Reporter to see another critic’s perspective: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/theater-review-lydia-1003962836.story.

Be forewarned, however, that this is NOT a play for the easily offended. If you consider yourself extremely conservative and often find yourself proclaiming “Well, I never!”, then you will not enjoy this production.

[Terrance Vorwald]

McNulty's review is fair. Solis has crafted a play that is without a strong focus, but I would also add that the play lacks a firm thematic foundation. It is ultimately an interesting development by a talented writer. Ten years from now we will look back on this play as the beginning of a very important career in American Theatre. The performances were well crafted with the exception of the "groaning" Ceci. While her physical abilities are to be credited, her vocal skills are, honestly, corrosive. The play offers many cathartic moments which are indeed well crafted in themselves, but it lacks an argument to bind these moments into a whole. I do respect Solis, and I hope to follow his career as it develops from its current adolescent stage into adulthood.