AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

A tragedy in slow motion plays out against the backdrop of borders, both geographic and emotional, as a family comes to grips with the reality of who they really are in the East Coast premiere of Octavio Solis' Lydia, playing at Yale Repertory Theatre.

The Flores family goes through the motions of life in 1970s El Paso while trying not to deal with the emotions they feel about Ceci (Onahoua Rodriguez) and the tragic car accident which left her brain damaged two years earlier on the eve of her quinceañera, her 15th birthday.

Declared a “vegetable,” she spends her days on a mat on the living room floor communicating only in guttural sounds and moans. Her mother, Rosa (Catalina Maynard), works to keep the family together while her father, Claudio (Armando Durán), drowns out the world around him with liquor and oversized earphones connected to his phonograph.

Ceci’s volatile brother Rene (Tony Sancho), who was driving the car the night of the accident, also turns to alcohol and takes out his rage by beating homosexuals in the border town and by picking fights with Misha (Carlo Albán), his sensitive younger brother, who finds his escape through poetry and who is nicknamed for Baryshnikov.

Heightening the tension is cousin Alvaro (Christian Barillas), the man Ceci loves, who recently returned from Viet Nam where he fought his own private war. His decision to join the border patrol doesn’t sit well with the family, especially when illegal immigrant Lydia (Stephanie Beatriz) arrives as their maid.

Lydia’s uncanny connection with Ceci and her ability to “hear” what the voiceless girl needs and thinks is the catalyst that unwraps the shroud of darkness confining Ceci in her damaged body and the others in lonely chambers of unspoken emotions. Those images are nicely replicated by Andrew Boyce’s scenic design, which encloses the characters in the two-by-four frame of a house with views of the beautiful world, unreachable, just outside its boundaries.

Director Juliette Carrillo, with the help of lighting designer Jesse Belsky, creates an atmosphere where both reality and the mystical are at home as Ceci leaves her body and shares thoughts and ideas with Lydia and the audience. She remembers childhood games where her bothers and Alvaro played worker bees to her queen; she relives the thrill of being 15 and in love with Alvaro. Mostly, she wonders how, in her present state, she will be able to relieve unfulfilled sexual longings raging in her body. Rodriguez masterfully gushes youthful exuberance while reciting Solis’ lyrical prose, then collapses back onto to the mat as the seizing, moaning Ceci.

Beatriz embodies Lydia with compassion, humor and wisdom beyond her years. The bright and fun-loving young maid awakens desires in Claudio and Misha, and as she and Ceci become like mirror images of each other, each of the family members sees a clear reflection and steps outside the border of secrets imprisoning them.

Haunting recorded original music by Chris Webb (who died just before rehearsals began at Yale) with additional music and arrangements from Sound Designer David Molina underscore action and scene changes and complete the mood where all sorts of borders are breached and where truth and emotion collide to bring a tragically jarring, yet seemingly unavoidable conclusion.

---- Lauren Yarger

Lydia plays at the Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel St., New Haven, CT) through Feb. 28. Performances times are Tuesday-Saturday at 8pm with matinees at 2pm on Feb. 18, 21 and 28. Tickets are $35-$65 and can be purchased by calling 203-432-1234 or by visiting www.yalerep.org.