Argentinian playwright Ricardo Talesnik is a master of farce, as his “Las Quiero a las Dos” (“I Want Them Both”) at Teatro de la Luna makes clear. A play about the roles people play in life and how well they do or don’t adapt to the parts they have created for themselves, “Las Quiero a las Dos” is the story of a businessman, Miguel (Peter Pereyra) who is married to Julia (Yovinca Arredondo Justiniano).
Yet Miguel has wanderlust and when, in the first scene of the play, he appears to be packing for a business trip, it turns out that in fact he is packing to meet his mistress, Isabel (Karen Morales-Chacana).
Talesnik lets Julia know what her husband is up to right away, when she overhears him on the telephone with Isabel. So Julia locks the front door, hides the keys and disconnects the phone so Miguel can’t call a locksmith.
| Onstage | |
| ‘Las Quiero a Las Dos’ | |
| Where: Teatro de la Luna, Gunston Arts Center, 2700 S. Lang St., Arlington | |
| When: Through June 2 | |
| Info: $25 to $35; 703-548-3092; teatrodelaluna.org | |
The first part of the play is deliciously entertaining, as Miguel grows more and more frantic, knowing that Isabel won’t wait forever and perhaps fearing the worst: that she will come to find him. And that of course is exactly what happens, which triggers the even funnier scenes of the second half of the play.
When Isabel arrives at the apartment, Julia has had enough deception and invites Isabel in. Isabel it turns out, is tired of her status as mistress. She wants to be the wife. But when Julia hands her some sewing to do and retires to the bedroom with Miguel, Isabel is unhappy with that role, too.
Cannily directed by Mario Marcel, “Las Quiero” starts off going fast, then continues to gain momentum, barreling ahead until the play’s last moment. And although its characters are ordinary people, the play incorporates extreme examples of absurdity and silly behavior in order to make its points about how irrational and outrageous human nature can be.
Marcel wisely cast a trio of actors who are adept at comedy and can handle not only the speed but also the lightness of touch this text requires. The plot snaps back and forth in curious, unpredictable patterns, but Pereyra, Justiniano and Morales-Chacana are equal to its twists and turns.
A lesser playwright would have made this into a moralistic tale about the inequality of sexual roles. But Talesnik gives his play broader scope, aiming his comedy at the very act of lusting after total freedom, suggesting the anarchy any characters will confront when they try to build unattainable bliss into the structure of their lives.
