Review: Brown Box Theatre and Icaro Theatro Presents a Series of Latin American Short Plays in FROM WATER TO DUST

Brown Box Theatre Project and Icaro Theatro presents Boxer Shorts: A Cycle of Short Plays, From Water to Dust (del auga al polvo), playing at Boston's Atlantic Wharf through March 4th. This is Brown Box's second year presenting an evening of short plays. This year, the Project brings us four plays from Latin American Playwrights: Tape by Jose Rivera; Capricho by Nilo Cruz; Springtime by Maria Irene Fornes; and Bliss by Caridad Svich.

Each of the four plays taps into the human conditions of regret, reality, relationships, and eternity. Tape by Jose Rivera is a dark, Orwellian reflection for a character called Person (Rachel Belleman) as she is forced to listen to the tape recordings of her life of lies. The Attendant (Johnny Quinones) informs her she will be listening to all 10,000 tapes. A miserable fate.

Capricho by Nilo Cruz is a one-man play featuring a severely aging actor, Lolo (an unearthly Miquel Septien) who lives in a purgatory that resembles a green room. Lolo rambles while trapped in an eternal 10-minute call to places.

Springtime by Maria Irene Fornes is about how far someone is willing to fall in order to prop up a loved on. Greta (Belleman) falls ill and needs the aide of her lover Rainbow (a great Olivia Caputo.) Rainbow must give up her virtuous present to her immoral past which forces her to lie, cheat, and steal. Rainbow gets into trouble too deep before she wonders why she does such a thing.

Lastly, Bliss by Caridad Svich, a head scratcher, features Jim (Quinones) and Lori (Olivia) as they are washed up on the shores of a Floridian beach entangled in black oil (I think.) The piece features movement and a vagueness that is better left to be seen than read about.

From Water to Dust is an enigmatically disjointed presentation of four short plays woven together in an attempt to create a fully satisfying evening of theatre. Unfortunately, the individual plays bite off more they can chew and never successfully dissect the issues addressed in them. The overzealous plays cause the overarching cohesion of From Water to Dust to be perplexing and challenging to fully comprehend.

Designed for the lobby of Boston's Atlantic Wharf building, From Water to Dust is the epitome of experimental fringe theatre. Meagan Kinneen's inventive scenic design is a suspended square that has muslin draped down to the floor. Lighting by Daisy Long and Gifford Williams relied on shadows to convey a haunting world which worked quite nicely. Directed by Talia Curtin and Kyler Taustin, From Water to Dust relies so heavily on aesthetic that fancy stage movement and scene transitions occasionally upstage the story being told.

From Water to Dust kicks of its tour here in Boston and will move onto Maryland before landing in Mexico for the conclusion of its run. Visit their website for tickets to any of their performances throughout the tour.

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