Take a family with three daughters, add some weddings, several births and deaths, mix in laughter and sorrow, ghosts, a tang of gunfire, roosters, barking dogs, dancing, love, sex, lots of sex, and what do you have?
Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) on stage now at Gala Hispanic Theatre, a delight of a show whose joys overcomes the heartaches, and it's the U.S. premiere.
The place and timing are in Mexico, about 100 years ago where two revolutions were underway, the national civil war, and one at a home of entrenched traditions where daughters did, more or less, what their mamas told them to do.
Every ingredient you want in a play is here and more to savor! Magnifico!
Director Olga Sánchez conducts a talented crew but none more able than Luz Nicolas, Mama Elena in the play, the hated, cruel, and vindictive wicked witch of this stage with hair severely pulled back to augment her sharp features. (Costumer Moyenda Kulemeka's simple and refined apparel keeps the mom in black, and the other actors in colorful garb, none which detracts from the script.)
Tita (Inez Dominguez del Corral) is Mama Elena's youngest daughter, imprisoned for life and sentenced to caring for her mother who ages in the finest of traditions.
He brought her flowers, starring Ines Dominguez del Corral as Tita in Gala Hispanic Theatre's Like Water for Chocolate/photo by Daniel MartinezThe man who waits for no one, Pedro (Peter Pereyra), and enjoys soon enough the "services" of two women, Tita and her older sister, Rosaura (Guadalupe Campos), marries Rosaura, so he can be "closer" to Tita whom Evil Mother has banned from love and happiness.
Crazy? Yes, like most families.
Meanwhile, the other sister, an energetic Gertrudis (Yaremis Felix) consumes a Tita magic potion dish (does the script come with recipes?) and "ignites," running off with a guerrilla warrior and his pals who eventually barnstorm the home with guns and hot takes.
The passion, which the now-always-beaming Gertrudis shares with her newly-found love, comes straight from the oven, enough to heat up the stage and the audience, too. (If this were in January, no heating elements would be necessary for anyone in the house. The "fight and intimacy director," Jonathan Ezra Rubin, adds a heaping side of relish to saucy and scalding scenes.)
Preparing consistently perfect chile en nogada is practically impossible, and this Chocolate has its weaknesses, particularly in the second act when the first act's successful time passage technique become tiresome.
Music (and sound) by David Crandall spice up Chocolate's menu with perfect timing for explosives, lights, and action.
Demands for frequent and varied lighting changes are amply satisfied under Christopher Annas-Lee's excellent guidance to add zest to the many scenes (ably designed by Mariana Fernandez). The centerpiece on the stage is the kitchen table which serves multiple purposes (including births). (Properties by Tony Koehler)
Windows with moving curtains double as frames for regularly-appearing ghosts with messages and enforce the notion of "magical realism." That's the genre here which is a contradictory term itself, but that defines this domicile of peachy walls and warmth, conflict, and fire.
Spoken in Spanish with English subtitles, but Chocolate's strong story soon eclipses reading subtitles which becomes unnecessary.
The play is based on the 1989 bestselling first novel by Laura Esquivel and adapted for the stage by Garbi Losada.
Adding more seasoning to the presentation are images in Gala's lobby of the Mexican Revolution from the collection of Dr. Barbara Tenebaum and James Kiernan.
Coming up September 23 after the 2 p.m. performance is a discussion with cookbook author, Chef Pati Jinich, the James Beard Award winner and host of the PBS Pati's Mexican Table series who is also the resident chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute.
Other members of the Chocolate cast are Carlos Castillo as Don Pascual; Delbis Cardona, Dr. John Brown; Karen Romero, narrator; and crowd favorites Teresa Yenque who is Nacha, and Karen Morales, Chencha.
The technical crew also includes Niomi Collard, projections; Catherine Nunez, stage manager; Devin Mahoney, technical director; and Heather McKay, English translator.
What: Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)
When: Now through October 7, 2018, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
Where: Gala Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20010.
Tickets: $48 and $30 for seniors (65+), military, students, and those ages 30 and under, with additional discounts for groups of 10 and more. Go online to order: GALA Ticket Box
(To read subtitles comfortably, English-only guests should request seating in rows E through H.)
Duration: About 2. 5 hours with one 10 minute intermission.
Language and ages: Rated "G." Content is adult.
Metro stations: Columbia Heights or McPherson Square and take a bus or the Circulator from McPherson up 14th or walk two miles.
Parking: Available nearby. Ask about Gala's $4 flat rate.
For more information: Call (202) 234-7174 and/or email info@galatheatre.org
patricialesli@gmail.com
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