STAGE WEST: "Derecho" at La Jolla Playhouse

Ashley Alvarez (left) and Caro Guzman in "Derecho."                                            Photo by Rich Soublet II

            Early on in La Jolla Playhouse’s world-premiere production of Uruguayan-American playwright Noelle Vinas’ “Derecho” I realized that even if I agree wholeheartedly with the politics of a show, having them hit me over the head -- repeatedly -- gets old quickly.
            And “Derecho” is political. It has a lot to say – and say and say– over the course of 95 minutes about assimilation, gentrification, truth to and/or betrayal of heritage, white-privilege guilt, representation, identity and more. There’s also a long-held and disastrously spilled family secret that ultimately supersedes even the warring characters’ full-throated polemics.
            “Derecho” finds itself on the Playhouse’s Forum stage two years after it was seen by some patrons as part of the theater’s 2022 DNA New Works Series. That workshop experience and having the dependable Delicia Turner Sonnenberg as its director should have assured a smart and sensitive mainstage production.
            But too often the informed and potent commentary Vinas makes in her script about integrity, family and sociopolitical issues is talked out and, as the play lumbers along, shouted out.
            “Derecho’s” breaths in between come in the form of monologual reflections by one of the story’s Silva sisters – the older Eugenia (Ashley Alvarez) or younger Mercedes (Caro Guzman) – or during flashbacks featuring them both, or in dream-like breaks from the flammable get-together going on in an attractive home in an upscale section of Alexandria, Va. (I could’ve moved into these digs designed by Tanya Orellana).
            While these are welcome and often enlightening departures from the unfolding drama at the house, they feel less than organic, especially when the characters freeze or move in slo-mo.
            “Depecho” (it refers to a storm, which is heard here and there and which is also a pretty obvious metaphor) begins innocently enough. Uruguayan-American Eugenia, a progressive candidate for an unspecified office, invites Jose Portillo (Jorge Sanchez Diaz), an activist and old friend from her past, to the house with the intention of making him her campaign manager. He arrives with his wife Soledad (Carla Navarro) and a 5-month-old baby (who amazingly sleeps through all the arguing that comes later).
            Meanwhile, Eugenia’s husband Gabe (Luis Vega) has also invited a friend, Jeff Randolph (Eric Hagen) for the evening. Bad move, Gabe. Jeff and Mercedes have a history, and Mercedes, a musician on hiatus and for the time being living with her sister and brother-in-law, has already shown herself to be truculent before any of the guests have even arrived. (She and Eugenia snipe at each other for the first few minutes of the play.)
            Laser-focused on her campaign and on recruiting Jose, iron-willed Eugenia isn’t happy either about Jeff being at the party.
            Jeff is blond-locked and bearing Bud Light and altogether looking like Owen Wilson dressed up after an afternoon of surfing. But it’s his seemingly sincere intention to donate heavily to Eugenia’s campaign, in recompense for his family’s having pushed the longtime residents of the community out of their homes via gentrification, that lights the fuse.
            A heated discussion between the Portillos and Eugenia and Gabe about whether Latinx or Latine or some other appellation is appropriate or solicitous or offensive is the start of the verbal battle royal that the storm outside takes a back seat to. The “Jeff issue” will follow soon.
            “Derecho’s” side drama, Mercedes’ personal reveal to Jeff on the patio, comes about a third of the way into the story, finally raising the stakes beyond the philosophical. It also factors into the aforementioned family secret. (No spoilers.)
            As you may have surmised by this point, this is a very busy script with simmering discourse that never lets up. There is a crucial character examination when it comes to Eugenia, who must wrestle with ambition, integrity, sisterly love and conscience – all in one evening. Fittingly, Mercedes is the play’s other rounded character, grappling as she is with difficult life questions of her own.
            Among the others, only Gabe is given more depth, and it’s he who tries to be the voice of reason on a night when listening, really listening, is in short supply.
            Alvarez and in particular Guzman rise above the inadequacies in the script while Vega, he of the Playhouse’s superb “Seize the King” in 2018, acquits himself well as the well-meaning but flustered Gabe.
            Lighting designer Sherrice Mojgani and sound designer German Martinez provide the atmosphere of this production and the subtle touches that the verbal exchanges could have used more of.
            In a presidential election year like this one, works that mine the depths of political discourse and question integrity are timely. “Derecho” may also be a reminder that yelling usually doesn’t get us anywhere.
            “Derecho” runs through Aug. 18 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Forum.