New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad is currently mounting
José Rivera’s 1995 dream play “Cloud Tectonics” through Feb. 25th.
Twenty- three years ago the La Jolla Playhouse produced
“Cloud Tectonics” in the Mandell Weiss Theatre with Tina Landau directing and
starred Camilla Sanes and Louis Antonio Ramo. The memory is still vivid in my
mind.
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| Poster from 1995 Production |
I found Rivera’s splay mesmerizing then. Today under the deft
direction of Herbert Sigüenza with the gorgeous Nadia Guevara and equally
handsome Jose Balistrieri as the two protagonists Celestina del Sol and Aníbal
de la Luna, I am still in awe of the enchantment it radiates and the questions
it raises.
We can talk about time standing still, or of time fleeting.
In any event time is something we all need more of. In the José Rivera’s “Cloud Tectonics”, time stands still for Celestina del Sol, who according to her own
calculations has been pregnant for the past two years and is about 50 years
old.
We first meet Christina thumbing a ride at the bus stop at
the corner of Virgil and Santa Monica and very pregnant and it is pouring
‘cat’s and dogs’. She is looking for the baby’s father. “He’s a very handsome
and dishonest man.”
Aníbal, on his way home from work, can't just leave her there so stops and gives her a ride. “You’re just out there hitching? In a hurricane? Pregnant” For fun?”… “it’s the
storm of the century and nobody should out in it.”
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| Jose Balistrieri and Nadia Guevara |
“Raging floods on Fairfax…bodies floating down the LA River.
LAX closed (He’s a luggage handler at the airport.)…if the Big One came right
now, forget it, half the city would die.
But that’s LA for you: disasters just waiting to happen.”
As one thing leads to another we learn that she has no place
to go, she’s childlike and has no concept of time (“I was safe in my house!
Papi and Mami had it all worked out for me! They took away all the clocks.”)
They finally end up in Echo Park at Aníbal’s place ‘until the rain stops.’
Just how long they stay together is a mystery. From the
moment they enter Aníbal’s place, time stops. All clocks register 12:00 and
remain that way for the rest of the scene. He wants to know how far along she
is in her pregnancy, “Isn’t knowing how pregnant you are a little basic? Like
knowing your age?”
They go through the motions of toweling off. He makes quesadilla,
they engage in small talk; the baby, what it was like in her room in Montauk
where there was no order, everything was on top of everything.
One has wonder if we haven’t entered into the Twilight Zone.
“Time? Is time blue? Does it taste like steak? Can you f**ck it? Or is it just
the freight train that runs you over every single day breaking you into smaller
and smaller pieces?”
Knowingly or unknowingly love is in the air, at least for the
time Celestina and Aníbal are together. They are interrupted by the arrival of
Aníbal’s brother Nelson (Javier Guerrero) just on leave from the Army wearing
some weird looking ‘uniform’.
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| Jose Balistrieri and Javier Guerrero |
The brothers, as different as night and day have not seen
each other in six years. The apartment comes to life with his arrival. He’s
robust, loud and doesn’t hesitate to show his feelings good or bad. He falls
over heels in love with Celestina and wants her to promise she will wait for
him when he returns from the war in Syria. (The original text reads Bosnia). He
will take over the role as father to her long overdue baby.
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| Nadia Guevara with Javier Guerre |
From the ethereal
to the reality when the clock starts ticking, what emerges from the ashes of
‘The Big One’ or Armageddon – a monster with seven epicenters-releasing unimaginable waves of
energy and killing many unprepared people", will blow your mind.
But by plays end, nothing is as we might expect. A brave new world? Hold on to your hats. Rivera has so pretty ingteresting thoughts on how the world will transform after all is destroyed.
Sigüenza has a mighty reliable cast in hand making this
magical realism, this enchanting piece of theatre flow naturally. While the
world outside is headed for a disaster, two lovers float through time, as it
stands still, in a tiny apartment in a suburb of Los Angeles.
Nadia Guevara, last seen in “The Secret Garden” has all the naïve
and youthful qualities about her, yet she radiates a sexiness that attracts men
to her. She plays well off of Balistrieri who is almost able to get his feet on
the ground while floating through space falling in love with a mysterious
woman who takes hold of his being.
Aníbal: “What better way to respond to a miracle than to fall
in love with it?”
Surreal and mysterious from the start, the play seems to take
on a life of its own as the two lovers, one named for the sun the other the
moon lose each, lurch forward in another moment in time some forty years later,
and find each other in a surprising turn as the hands of time have now caught
with them.
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| The Bed and all its celestial surroundings |
Set designer Christopher Scott Murillo creates a small, but
functioning apartment with racks holding huge plastic bottles of water, a sofa
and in an area off stage, a kitchen. After pulling back a shower like curtain,
a huge bed with ladders on either side to climb takes over the entire back stage while plastic umbrellas line the sides.
Rain and thunder can be heard throughout most of the play
created by sound designer Mark Spiro who also composed the background music.
Paul Canaletti, JR. makes wonderful use of the lighting, Ben Cole is fight
choreographer and Carmen Amon designed the costumes.
There is something fascinating about time and time travel
that draws me to a play like this. What would it be like to travel through time
or back in time, or to stand still in time? If that were the case what would we
find, lose, or gain? What could we change, stop from happening, or live in that
period, somewhat like the characters in Dana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” series.
Time in a bottle, anyone?
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through Feb. 25th
Organization: New Village Arts
Phone: 760-433-3245
Production Type: Fantasy
Where: 2787 State Street, Carlsbad, CA, Carlsbad Village
Ticket Prices: Start at $33.00
Web: newvillagearts.org
Venue: New Village Arts Theatre
Photo: Daren Scott
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