MOXIE LOOKS AT PUERTO RICO WITH PERFORMANCES THROUGH MAY 26

By Susan Taylor

May 21, 2024  (San Diego) -- The audience won’t easily remember the title of Moxie Theater’s current play (Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members), but the set, characters, costumes, and story won’t soon be forgotten.  Patrons willing to pack a lot into their Memorial Day weekend can still get tickets to see the political drama, which ends on Sunday May 26.  A neat trick is to arrive an hour early for the Saturday or Sunday matinee which begins at 2 p.m.  These box office “rush” tickets go for just $20.

The play is about a young Puerto Rican woman from New York, who is dangerously angry over the historic colonization of Puerto Rico, its massive economic debt, and its version of Wall Street stomp-dancing on the souls of the people.

Actors Christine Carmela and William BJ Robinson are all energy all the time, just the two characters moving and yelling and pleading for 90 minutes, no intermission, as the drama barely slows down to the last words.

Carmela plays Lolita, a representation of Puerto Rican Lolita Lebron, who in 1954 committed acts of violence inside Capitol Hill. The program notes reveal that she was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.  For the audience who knows little about that event, the play can be confusing, as is Robinson’s character of the office receptionist, a drag performer without a name, and real-life quick-change artist, appearing in and out of doors in the set wearing boas and stilettos, a Bob Fosse derby one time, or a muu muu and garish wig another.  He is a flamboyant Gumby-like fluid presence who moves to his own groove.  The island of Puerto Rico is popular for its LGBTQ tourist industry, one more piece of background information that will help the audience understand his role.

Painted pink, lavender, and mint green, the stage and sparse props evoke a toy office, an interesting contrast to the pistols, bold dialog, and tension that punctuate the play.  We see that Lolita is as much confused as she is outraged, and the receptionist equally despairing and also entertaining.

After the Sunday matinee, director Andrea Agosto, answered questions from the audience, with commentary from the two actors about what it meant to all of them of Puerto Rican heritage.  The play was performed in New York and San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre before finding its short run in Rolando on El Cajon Blvd at Moxie, known for performances created by women about edgy subjects.

 As Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members is about to close, the director and actors expressed gratitude for being able to share the play’s message of self-determination and society’s duplicity of providing for and suppressing civil and economic rights.

For tickets, visit https://www.moxietheatre.com/shows/notes/.