Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Luis Alfaro’s MOJADA, Euripides’ “Medea” through a contemporary Latin lens

• By drediman
• July 18, 2019
• No Comments

Benjamin Luis McCracken, Alex Hernandez, Sabina Zuniga Valera, and Socorro Santiago in the Public Theater’s production of “Mojada” by Luis Alfaro. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Last night, Luis Alfaro’s new play Mojada opened Off-Broadway at the Public Theater. I’ve become a fan of Mr. Alfaro’s contemporary Latin retelling of Greek tragedies over the years. His plays Electricidad (which I caught at Chicago’s Goodman Theater back in 2004) and Oedipus El Rey (which I saw in different productions at the Woolly Mammoth in Washington, DC in 2011 and in 2017 at the Public Theater) brought two Sophocles tragedies – “Electra” and “Oedipus Rex”, respectively – to urgent new life through a unique lens. With Mojada, which is set in present-day Queens, he takes a similarly modern-day look at Euripides’ searing “Medea”.

Mojada distinguishes itself from the other two adaptations by increasing the level of specificity. Both Electricidad and Oedipus El Rey exist in realms that are seductively suggestive of both our contemporary world and the timelessness of the underlying Sophocles plays. In his latest play, which is making its New York premiere via the Public’s slightly retooled version (Mojada was previously seen in Chicago, Portland, and Los Angeles), the current painful realities of being a refugee and an immigrant in this country are inextricably tied to Mr. Alfaro’s retelling. It takes a little while for the play to heat up, but as the play reveals more about the central family’s history (including their horrific journey from Mexico to New York), the play builds to a shattering conclusion that would make Euripides proud.

Chay Yew’s atmospheric staging is very good, although at times overly broad in its underlined depiction of Latin culture. Nevertheless, as the plot unravels, both playwright and director do a great job of focusing the production on the relationship between the parallel tragedies of Euripides’ unsettling play and the plight of Mexican refugees. The cast is also very good, particularly Sabina Zuniga Valera and Socorro Santiago, both of whom are unafraid to go to tough emotional places as Medea (here, a fragile, otherworldly seamstress) and Tita (her spunky, inappropriately but amusingly direct nanny and maid).

RECOMMENDED

MOJADA
Off-Broadway, Play
The Public Theater
1 hour, 45 minutes (without an intermission)
Through August 11