'Marisol': play shows uniqueness and creativity

My Monica Kreber
kreberm@mytjnow.com

What do I have to say about the play “Marisol”…?

I felt like I was on an acid trip when I saw it.

The cast overall did an amazing job – each person’s role was intense and vigorous. Out of all the theatre productions I have seen this school year, I feel like “Marisol” had the most emotion (you know it is an intense play when you hear fellow audience members gasp and hiss). From watching it I could deduce that the cast worked very hard and it seemed like the characters were not very easy roles to learn.

Unfortunately, I do not think I am a “deep” enough person to fully comprehend the play in its entirety.

From a religious perspective it was somewhat hard to follow. The focus of the play is a Latina named Marisol (played by Amber Westbrook) who lives in the Bronx, and is visited by her guardian angel (Sean Rodriguez) who tells her he and his fellow angels are going to be at war against God for, basically, getting a little slack in his job at watching over the Earth. The angel tells Marisol that since he will be fighting, he needs to lose his angel wings, and will no longer be able to protect her. 

The rest of the play is set in apocalyptic New York as Marisol struggles to find her missing friend June (Courtney Williams) while trying to figure out why neither God nor anybody else, seems to be listening…at least, that is what I got out of it.

The visual effects of the play were fascinating – there is a part when Marisol and June are in their work office and mention smoke, and the audience sees plumes of “smoke” dotting the top of the set on stage. I also could have sworn I smelled sulfur (was that on purpose?).

I think the real “issue” I had watching the play was when the character Lenny (Kashaad Kraus), who is a man, gets pregnant. While part of me found it humorous, the other part of it was really taken aback by it. Just the idea is gross – why did Lenny have to get pregnant instead of, maybe, Marisol or June? 

The baby Lenny gives birth to appears to die – I felt like that could have been explained more; why did that baby, and the other babies mentioned, die? 

Otherwise, I give the play props for being different and showing a lot of uniqueness; obviously someone far more creatively and artistically capable than myself wrote the play.