Water by the Spoonful

Play (2011)
by Quiara Alegría Hudes

With Gabriel Rodriguez (Elliot Ortiz), Sasha Castorverde (Yazmin Ortiz), Mariela Lopez-Ponce (Haikumom, aka Odessa), Gabriel Kuttner (Fountainhead, aka John), Johnny Lee Davenport (Chutes&Ladders), Theresa Nguyen (Orangutan), Zaven Ovian (Ghost/Professor Aman/Policeman)

Without giving away the mission of this support group, one can only say that it is diverse, including an Hispanic woman moderator, a white, middle aged businessman, a Japanese-American girl living in Hokkaido (the northernmost part of Japan), and an older man estranged from his family.

Though the play is suggestive and potentially evocative, there is something in the writing keeps it from jelling. Instead of giving a thoroughgoing depiction of any of the characters or relationships in the array, it gives a series of impressions and snapshots. They are interesting looks into these characters, but there is not very satisfying follow-through.

This play is a part of a trilogy, and one might reasonably argue that the other two parts give the sense of context missing here. Be that as it may, there is an episodic quality to the characterizations that could have been addressed even within this one part of that series.

Hudes wrote the book to the exceedingly popular musical In The Heights which won the Tony award for best musical in 2008. Frankly, I find the book to that show quite lightweight. Even though the show itself has a kind of caché which excited my expectations of vital Hispanic life and music in northern Manhattan, it did not, in the end, feel like a real fulfillment of that hope. The music was okay, but mor showbizzy than deeply infused with Hispanic sensibilities, and the story was pretty thin.

Here, Hudes looks for something more substantial, and apparently wrote this trilogy thinking of her cousin, an Iraqi War veteran. This character, Elliot (Gabriel Rodriguez), provides the thread of the trilogy and presumably gives it shape. But what comes out is a kind of melodramatic mish-mash rather than an evolved story. This shortcoming derives more from the writing than from anything particular to do with this production itself.

The acting, overall, is quite good, and there are some fine Boston-area professionals in the cast.

Gabriel Kuttner is an immensely versatile actor who can range easily between comedy and vivid tragedy. His portrayal of Fountainhead is quite moving, even though I wanted more of him from the play.

I have seen Johnny Lee Davenport give a wide variety of interesting performances on Boston stages and his interpretation here of Chutes&Ladders is quite good and compelling. He and Theresa Nguyen who plays the Japanese-American girl, Orangutan, is very sweet and provides some of the most stimulating drama of the show.

Though the trilogy centers around Gabriel’s story, the focus of this single play seems to be more on the online group which Haikumom (Mariela Lopez-Ponce) moderates. The play gives a taste of each character’s story, but not much more than that. Gabriel’s story eventually weaves into the online part of the narrative, though the attenuation of the connection does not quite make dramatic sense.

After seeing the show, I found it a surprise that this play received the Pulitzer Prize in 2012. It has some moving stuff in it, and takes off from an interesting idea, but, in the end, seems more like a suggestive urge in the direction of a more realized work. It has potential weight and impact, but calls out for more shaping to make it meld.

The Lyric Stage production works hard to try to bring these strands together, but, in the end, the evocative, but not completely evolved, writing is responsible for the feeling of something that does not quite jell.

– BADMan