 "Photo: Gerry Goodstein")
Spanish is one of my least favorite school subjects, yet I could not wish more for some cultural influence to liven up “Sarita,” the latest in Fordham College at Lincoln Center’s Mainstage season. This play is supposed to take place in a Spanish community, but director Daniella Topol’s production has nary a trace of ethnicity, leaving the show a rather stale affair.
Maria Irene Fornes’s play with music considers love as a gateway to madness. Sarita (Rebecca Ballenger) is a teenager living in the 1940s Bronx torn between the piggish Julio (Thomas Pecinka) and the sensitive Mark (Adam Blodgett). This story is punctuated by short songs performed by a small orchestra.
The program for this play lists six characters with Spanish names, but nobody would guess they were Spanish if they saw the production without that aid. None of the cast members have an accent, and only James Presson as the boarder Fernando has any physical characteristics. Rows of clotheslines are the only scenic element that suggests these characters live in a poorer neighborhood. The play’s halfway point, when Sarita says she has “met an American boy,” has the first solid confirmation that Sarita belongs to a different culture.
This lack of cultural influence could be due to a shortage of Spanish students in FCLC’s acting program. Even so, the cast could have tried to look and sound Spanish. Denying the characters any ethnic definition muddles the proceedings. Sarita is variably called by her name or by her nickname Sara, and since Ballenger looks like Amy Adams, it is unclear what her ethnicity is until the evening is half over. This presence of white actors also deadens the story. The play is meant to be a multicultural love triangle, which could be an interesting conflict. Without that aspect, “Sarita” becomes more ordinary and less interesting.
The production has a few artistic touches that may be trying to compensate for the lack of cultural identity. Designer Kris Stone’s set is extremely minimal, mostly taken up by a giant circular window that seems to represent Sarita’s inescapable attraction to Julio. One could wish for a little more oomph in this set, but it looks appropriate. Less successful is the actors’ visible occupation of the stage’s empty space when their characters are not in a scene. When backlit, they either signal a passage of time or stand in for somebody the onstage characters are discussing. This helps to fill in gaps left by the small set, but the actors’ movement makes the motif more distracting than illuminating.
One artistic touch that could have helped “Sarita” is the staging of the songs. Aside from the underscore, the music is unnecessary and mostly gives information that could have been spoken. The songs could have been expressed as extensions of Sarita’s psyche, similar to the numbers in the “Nine” and “Chicago” movies. If the character seems to be romanticizing everything she sees, then her mentality would be less focused and more subject to her eventual madness. However, Sarita is offstage for a couple of the songs, relegating the whole score back to the state of singing just for the heck of it.
Even though the songs lack a point, they are made enjoyable by a cast that sings well if not spectacularly (though Blodgett is particularly impressive). None of them are great in the acting scenes, but this is less their fault than it is that of the script, which gives the characters no time for development. Nevertheless, these actors do their best with what the script and Topol have given them, so they should be commended for their efforts.
The cast, along with the talented orchestra and the emotive lighting by Pat Dignan, is the only source of energy this production has. If they had been allowed to portray their characters’ true selves or were not being used as scenery filler, then they could have benefitted this production even further. As it stands, they offer minimal support to an underdone show.
8 comments
Fact: Not enough diversity in FU theatre dept.
Fact: Plays with minority characters suffer.
Fact: Defensive FU posters/shills are in denial.
All that wandering was irritating. This gritty play doesn't need intellectual metaphors threading through it.
I don't think costuming at all signaled the family was poor; everything looked decent. Good couch for 1939.
Set, lights, music, dance, costumes and Blodgett were awesome. Play is well-written, just needs right actors! It's all about the acting (and here, singing). In Fornes Festival soon, I bet that casting will be sublime!
Perfect headline, guys. No whitewash here.