The actors stand frozen onstage, set amidst disquieting ambient music and a cityscape of newspapers permeating the background.
The performance space is small, making the audience uncomfortable by the proximity to the play seemingly already underway.
I couldn’t help but smile as the audience jumped at flitting, disconcerting movement out of the corner of their eyes as actors periodically changed position.
Director Rebeca Mayorga, and others involved in the production, have a clear purpose and taste for creating something arresting and disparate.
That should excite you.
There were a number of small details that enraptured me so much I forgot for a while that I ought to be taking notes. The light and sound design, by Billy Tubb and C.K. Barlow, respectively, was definite and fascinating. A river of cloth was used again and again in lovely and inventive ways as the story of our bocón continued to unfold.
“¡Bocón!” meaning “loud mouth” (which will make sense here in a second) has a classic hero’s journey on display: Miguel, a young boy from a nonspecific Central American country (played by Jess Liesveld), finds his simple life and family disrupted by the presence of bellicose soldiers. In one fell swoop, Miguel is introduced to both the mundane and distressing when his parents are taken, as well as the more uncanny and metaphorical, when his physical voice is literally lost.
The play then shifts mostly into magical realism and allegory, but with plenty of poignancy, for disenfranchised transients lost and forgotten by the United States’ relationship to the parts of the ignored hemisphere inhabited by brown people.
Miguel’s call to adventure summons him to trek to City of Angels to make things right. The necessary supernatural mentor is none other than The Weeping Woman herself, La Llorona (played by Sonya Tijerina).
Tijerina plays various other parts in the production and nails each and every one. She can be powerful, disconcerting, affecting, hilarious and almost anything. And while her shear amount of stage time allows her many opportunities to impress, she is by no means unique amongst the cast as an exceptional performer.
Liesveld does a superb job carrying the driving force of the piece, especially since so much silent emoting is required for most of the play. Roberto Morales is incredibly memorable for his masterful and hilarious appearance as a duende , a tricksy sort of goblin. Juliana Gorena and Michelle Perez also play many parts and do so with gusto and humanity. Joel Garcia gives plenty of support as the voices of adulthood.
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There is really something immediately striking about each of the performers. They’re young — most likely barely in their teens — but there is something remarkably special about what’s happening onstage, something greater than the sum of its parts. There is a professionalism and intensity of purpose which instills every word to the smallest movement.
And the entire play is funny. While it’s true that the performers are young, there is no impression that they’re simply goofing off on stage for attention. There is no sense of conciliatory praise from the audience for the sake of a compulsory pat on the head.
I was asked once personally what “professional theatre” needed to distinguish itself from community theatre.
Perhaps this is it.
The whole of the UNM theatre and dance department and Albuquerque ought to take serious note of the performers and, certainly, Working Classroom by and large.
These kids are going places.
The standing ovation was a no-brainer, and the crowd seemed to agree. “¡Bocón!” is practically required viewing for anyone even vaguely interested in theatre and anyone even a little curious about art that challenges and innovates.
It’s good to find a classroom that works. So, hell, you might as well learn something.
Graham Gentz is a theatre and movie reviewer for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture @dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
