In the warm embrace of a lover, hours can seem like minutes, and a night of lovemaking can pass by in mere moments. So when Good Samaritan Anibal de la Luna (Samer Ajluni) picks up a rain-drenched and very pregnant hitchhiker, the following two hours he spends with the beautiful, but mysterious Celestina del Sol (Jamie Weeder) become a life-altering experience. Yet unlike a typical boy-meets-girl story, time IS the essence of Jose Rivera's often-poetic "Cloud Tectonics," which opened Nov. 5 at Ann Arbor's Pot & Box courtesy of The New Theatre Project.
Having just arrived in Los Angeles in search of the "handsome" but "dishonest" man who impregnated her, Celestina has nowhere to go on this stormy night. So despite his initial hesitation – he's got a girlfriend out of town on business who may not take kindly to his generosity – Anibal invites the enchanting woman to spend the night at his house. She accepts, and once there, their initial awkwardness gives way to a quickly developing relationship that's interrupted by an unexpected knock at the door. No, it's not the unsuspecting girlfriend, but Anibal's younger brother Nelson (Frank Gutierrez) whom he hasn't seen in six years. It's pretty much love at first sight for the army veteran, who leaves after promising to return in two years to marry Celestina and raise her baby as his own.
But within minutes – and after the friendship heats up between Celestina and Anibal – a somewhat agitated Nelson returns, but this time with news that will shake his brother to his core.
Theatergoers, too, will be stunned – especially by the play's conclusion, which successfully pulls together Rivera's themes of time and love. Those final few seconds, which bring the story full circle, earned quiet whispers from throughout the opening-night audience that acknowledged they "got" it, and that everything now made total sense.
And indeed it does. At times, though, Rivera's fascinating script meanders a bit with dialogue that makes you wonder why it's there and why he feels it's important to include it. But tasty clues are dribbled out right from the beginning, – including a clock change I suspect most people missed – that ultimately reveal there's more behind Celestina than a few personality quirks or mental instability might indicate. (She claims early on to have no concept of time, for example, and she's been pregnant for two years.) And Nelson's immediate fixation with Celestina and her unborn baby seems contrived (unless one makes certain assumptions about the woman after the show's conclusion that may or may not be true).
But ultimately, the few structural problems don't matter much, since strong performances and near-flawless direction drive Rivera's script to its impressive conclusion.
Anibal is the most challenging role, with far more emotional beats to master than the other two characters – and Ajluni conquers them from start to finish. He especially deserves praise for keeping the audience focused during a very long monologue that could otherwise become rather boring.
As Celestina, a woman out of sync with time, Weeder must anchor her character in reality – a potentially confusing and difficult task. Yet she does so with great skill. She projects a warm aura of love from her first appearance to her last.
Gutierrez, meanwhile, storms in with obscenities flying – twice – and livens up the performance. Together, the two men are totally believable as brothers.
Direction by Ben Stange starts out a bit shaky (more on that later), but he quickly redeems himself with perfect pacing, allowing the story's ebbs and flows to occur quite naturally. And his use of the rather unorthodox performance space is quite effective. (So too is the set by Keith Paul Medelis.)
The story would be better served, however, if creative sound effects were used to help tell the story or identify certain scenes – especially early on. (The script holds all sorts of possibilities for sound – real or otherwise!) And the staging of the car scene makes little sense, as there's no way two people would sit at such odd angles from each other. (In fact, there's nothing to suggest they're IN a car, other than the dialogue!) And why was Anibal mostly in the dark in this scene while Celestina was brightly lit? (To be honest, it looked like Ajluni missed his mark, since his left shoulder was partially lit, but not his face. But I suspect that's not really the case, since he made no attempt to correct the situation.) And finally, when Nelson returns to the house the second time, Anibal asks him what happened to his face. From what I could tell, there was no notable difference.
"Time and I don't hang out together," Celestina tells Anibal early in the play. While that might be true, theatergoers most likely will be glad they spent an enjoyable and thought-provoking evening with Celestina.
REVIEW:
'Cloud Tectonics'
The New Theatre Project at Pot & Box, 220 Felch St., Ann Arbor. Thursday-Monday through Nov. 15. $15. 810-623-0909. http://www.thenewtheatreproject.org.
