Photo – Matthew Neville
Claude Levi-Strauss once wrote: “Each of us is a kind of crossroads where things happen”. Our differences are derived from the details of our past acting on us in the present. Jose Rivera’s first play, The House of Ramon Iglesia is about these details and the power they exert on the members of a single family.
That family happens to be impoverished, Puerto Rican, and living in Holbrooke, Long Island in 1980. A long way from Sydney in 2015, but don’t be discouraged. To Puerto Ricans their homeland is also Borinquen, the “Land of the Valiant Lord”. The Spanish call it la isla del encanto or “the island of enchantment”. And Puerto Rico is literally “Rich Port”. Honor, faith, and money are therefore defining national and personal themes.
But in the Big Apple, the Iglesias provincial sincerity counts for little. Overwhelmed and aging, now Ramon Iglesia wants to go home. For 19 years he has promised his wife Dolores that he will return her to the land of green bananas and lightning storms. But this nostalgia is challenged by the aspirations of their American raised sons. Can a family so divided by experience and perspective ever be a house united?
Directed by Anthony Skuse and produced by MopHead, The House of Ramon Iglesia is a surprising and refreshing venture into Latin-American realism. With a vocal coach (Linda Nichols-Gidley) Ronny Jon Paul Mouawad, Stephen Multari, Eloise Snape, Deborah Galanos, Nicholas Papedetriou, Christian Charisou, and David Soncin conjure a Latin-American family with accuracy and endurance. It is in a way strange to watch Australians affect Puerto Rican manners, but this is more than compensated by a sense of authenticity about the immigrant experience.
The House of Ramon Iglesia is both sincere and compassionate without giving way to false-answers or back-slapping. Between love and hope there is also failure and forgiveness. Jose Rivera seems to be telling us that families, also, are a type of crossroads just infinitely more complex. This one is certainly worth seeing.
MopHead Productions in association with RedLine Productions presents
The House of Ramon Iglesia
by Jose Rivera
Directed by Anthony Skuse
Venue: Old Fitz Theatre | 129 Dowling St Woolloomooloo NSW
Dates: May 13 – Jun 6, 2015
Tickets: $32 – $22
Bookings: www.oldfitztheatre.com
Sydney Reviews
The House of Ramon Iglesia | MopHead Productions
- Details
- Daniel Morgan Potts
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