“You can push emotional extremes,” declares assumption 24 of José Rivera’s essay “36 Assumptions About Writing Plays.” “Be sexy. Be violent. Be irrational. Be sloppy. Be frightening. Be loud. Be stupid. Be colorful.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Rivera has acknowledged that the script was inspired by his own parents—Puerto Ricans who moved to the mainland in 1959, when Rivera was four. The first act, set on the island in the early 50s, charts how the heroine, Flora, meets husband-to-be Eusebio. A 22-year-old virgin, the straitlaced but feisty Flora breaks off her engagement to small-town slickster Manuelo because of his roving eye and his sexual double standard. (“Men are controlled by such desperate forces, Flora,” declares Manuelo in one of the play’s most beautifully structured and hilarious monologues. “I just hope you never experience them yourself!”) Hoping to mend her broken heart, Flora visits relatives in San Juan’s Santurce district (where Rivera was born). There she meets Eusebio, a 27-year-old national guardsman. With the encouragement of her cousin Petra, Flora and Eusebio fall in love, marry, and head for the so-called land of opportunity.
Act two finds the pair 39 years later, living in straitened circumstances in Alabama. Flora, still deeply religious, tends dutifully to Eusebio, now bedridden after losing both his legs to diabetes. Rivera explores the couple’s commitment as Flora’s Catholic faith is tested by revelations of Eusebio’s past philandering and by the question of whether the sanctity of life is more important than its quality. Juxtaposing Christianity with occultism, Rivera suggests that Eusebio’s medical problems might be the result of Fermin’s curse, then introduces an invisible angel, who tells Eusebio—and Eusebio alone—of his impending death. The play fudges on whether these supernatural elements are meant to be taken seriously. And while the soap-opera issue of infidelity is treated as high drama, deep issues of life and death are resolved fairly easily. The feel-good message seems to be that love conquers all.
Through 7/26: Tue-Sun, check with theater for showtimes, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org, $10-$70.
