The setting of a “post-apocalyptic dystopia” has become such a staple of modern literature – and the resultant cinematic adaptations – that your public library could reserve a room for books that fit the form.
When American playwright Jose Rivera wrote “Marisol” in 1992, it may have looked like it could be shelved in that room. But the author leaned upon another literary tradition, that of Latin American magical realism, in his tale of how a civil war in heaven was pulling guardian angels from their duties and plunging New York City into unrecognizable chaos.
While you may feel as if there’s enough chaos in your life right now, don’t let that keep you from attending a performance of “Marisol,” which is opening Penumbra Theatre’s season in a co-production with Teatro del Pueblo. Rivera’s writing is well worth experiencing, and what’s on stage at Penumbra is an imaginative and deeply absorbing staging, which, despite its darkness, offers a sense of hope and faith in humanity.
Directed by Sarah Bellamy, the production can bear the tone of a nightmare while also inspiring laughter with what comes out of the mouths of its wildly offbeat characters. Played out on Maruti Evans’ fascinating set full of steel mesh and funhouse mirrors and enhanced by the haunting projections of Miko Simmons, it’s a triumph of design that’s at its most compelling when it finds the realism embedded in this quite surreal tale.
The title character (played by Kay Mercedes) works for a Manhattan textbook publisher, but lives in a rough part of the Bronx, and it’s not long before we witness her enduring violent threats on a subway train and at her apartment door. In both cases, the danger is swept away by her leather-jacketed guardian angel (a visibly world-weary Vinecia Coleman), who then alerts Marisol that she’s relinquishing her duties of protecting her in order to help lead an insurrection in heaven against a senile and failing god.
Everything goes sideways from there. Marisol is forced to deal with the romantic obsession of a friend’s mentally ill brother, that friend’s disappearance, and being plunged into a landscape that’s less a dystopia than an apocalypse in process. The moon has disappeared, the sun’s in the wrong part of the sky, food is inedible, and men are bearing children. Sad to say, Rivera’s prophecy of violently aggressive “patriots” setting fire to homeless people seems to have come true.
If all that sounds daunting, be assured that Penumbra and Teatro del Pueblo’s production and, especially, Rivera’s arresting voice make this a very rewarding experience. It’s a tricky story to pull off convincingly, but the six-person cast does so, making each character memorable.
Director Bellamy wisely chooses to emphasize naturalism in the portrayals, making it all the more discomfiting when reality goes off the rails. James Craven is a standout as a wheelchair-bound homeless man, while Paul LaNave is compelling as a couple of daunting villains and the obsessive brother who undergoes a startling transformation.
If Mercedes’ Marisol were less melodramatic and more in tune with the naturalism of her castmates, this could be a truly masterful staging. But, as it is, this dystopian odyssey is well worth taking.
Penumbra Theatre and Teatro del Pueblo’s ‘Marisol’
When: Through Nov. 2
Where: Penumbra Theatre, 270 N. Kent St., St. Paul
Tickets: $45-$20, available at 651-224-3180 or penumbratheatre.org
Capsule: While dark and discomfiting, it’s also a deeply compelling experience.
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