Last weekend I saw two plays that have deep roots in New Mexico. Although they sharply contrasted with each other in most respects, they shared something of the humor and tragedy of life amid our luxuriant culture and arid land.
One of the plays was Revelations, a comedy performed by the Sandia Performing Arts Company at Vista Grande Community Center in Sandia Park. The other was Dreamlandia, an ambitious tragedy performed by Working Classroom in the Barelas neighborhood in Albuquerque.
Revelations is a slender bit of farce by James Galloway, a notable Albuquerque writer. Its theme is how five oddball characters cope with each other and with life in a desert filled with rich traditions but almost nothing else.
The three major roles are smoothly and energetically performed by Linda Sklov as Ma Jan, Maggie Maes as Dovey and Robert Muller as Homer. Joel D. Miller as an American Indian and Jeff Hudson as a prospector complete the cast.
The comfort level of the actors on the stage was illustrated when a partition was unexpectedly upset. Instead of becoming rattled, Maes casually turned to Ma Jane, her nemesis who was at the opposite side of the stage, and accused her of making it happen. The audience’s laughter showed that she had saved what could have been an embarrassing moment.
The playwright, who died in 2003, was a keystone and architect of the Albuquerque theater scene for a generation. A musician, opera composer, author of a number plays and a University of New Mexico professor, he also directed and produced edgy, path-breaking theater as head of the drama program at the University of Albuquerque.
The key characters in Revelations are a traveling salesman, a bitter old woman and her daughter-on law. The two women are forced to share a house full of stolen furniture in the desert outside Socorro.
The set is simple but flexible, and important props include cardboard cutouts of an old jalopy, a magic owl and a huge grandfather clock.
Revelations continues 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m.Sunday at Vista Grande, then moves to Santa Fe on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 at Teatro Paraguas, 3205 Calle Marie. For tickets and information call 307-2333 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
As different from Revelations as it is possible to imagine is Dreamlandia at the Working Classroom, 423 Atlantic Ave. It takes place in the borderland along the Mexican border. The set is magnificent, a raised platform of bare brown planks divided in two by a curving strip of glass, a clear evocation of the Rio Grande and its binational borders.
The story explodes from the first seconds when a Mexican immigrant dies on stage during agonizing childbirth. Was her death preventable? Who was responsible for it? What happened to the baby? Those are questions that haunt characters and audience during the next two hours of passion.
The story is an updating and retelling of one of the classics of Spanish literature, the 17th-century La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderon de la Barca, with faint echoes of an even older story, the Greek legend of Oedipus.
This is an ambitious and difficult play, with nine characters and several dozen scenes. It is an appropriate way for the workshop to mark its 25th anniversary as a unique Albuquerque institution that focuses on training minority students in the visual and performing arts.
This performance ably blends races and generations in a striking melange. The cast includes amateurs and professionals, children and adults (the oldest is 69), blacks, Hispanics and anglos. It is all quite a feat.
Standouts among the cast include Elijah Bradford as Lazaro, the young Andy Chavez as an energetic and engaging Pepin, Gabriela Mayorga as Blanca and Richard McClarkin as Celestino.
Two words of caution about Dreamlandia. You won’t be seated if you get there late, and the play’s language and themes are for an adult audience.
The play, written by Octavio Solis and effectively directed by Monica Sanchez, continues Fri.-Sun. until Aug. 25. For tickets and information call 242-9267 or go to wrokingclassroom.org.
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