There are plays about mothers and daughters that are sentimental. There are plays about mothers and daughters that are comedies. There are plays about the mothers and daughters where women of the older generation try to give women of a younger generation serious advice. But few mother-daughter plays contain all those elements. Gracia Morales’ “Como Si Fuera Esta Noche” (“As If It Were Tonight”) at Teatro de la Luna is an exception, tying together emotion, comedy and wisdom, expressing them in a unique brand of lyrical drama.
The notion of time in “Como Si Fuera” is never fixed, but is a fluid concept that illuminates and shapes the lives of the seamstress mother, Mercedes (Andrea Aranguren), and her daughter, Clara (Karen Morales-Chacana).
| “Como Si Fuera Esta Noche” |
| By Gracia Morales |
| Teatro de la Luna |
| Gunston Arts Center, 2700 S. Lang St., Arlington |
| 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday; through June 11 |
| 703-548-3092; teatrodelaluna.org |
There are times when Mercedes and Clara share moments and memories. At other times, Mercedes inhabits the world of the past, while Clara inhabits her present world. References to death and life abound, although the boundaries between them are blurred.
Although “Como Si Fuera” is focused on the relationship between Mercedes and Clara, it is also about the rest of their family, especially Mercedes’ husband. That part of the play takes “Como Si Fuera” into the realm of domestic violence, from a dramatic, not a sociological, point of view. Morales’ vision of Clara’s father and his drunken rages convincingly explains the ability of some women to “forgive and forget,” in order to sustain the hope that things will change.
Aranguren and Morales-Chacana are extremely versatile actresses who succeed at bringing out the distance and the closeness, the differences and similarities between two generations. Intelligently directed by Mario Marcel, they work well together to reveal the huge world that the two women shared before Mercedes’ death.
The set for “Como Si Fuera” is a jumble of furniture designed by Marcel. It is Mercedes’ dress shop where mannequins are hung with unfinished clothes and swaths of cloth overflow baskets and tables. Off to one side is an outdoor balcony where Clara retreats to use her cell phone. The balcony is an area of modernity, away from all the clutter of Mercedes’ old-fashioned life, a place where Clara goes, unsuccessfully, to connect with her boyfriend.
It’s difficult to make poetic texts work onstage, particularly when they are full of symbol and elusive references to the past. But Aranguren, Morales-Chacana and Marcel manage to make “Como Si Fuera Esta Noche” a double-barreled dramatic success: a realistic vision of a singular mother-daughter connection, and also a general tribute to loving relationships between mothers and daughters everywhere, in every generation.
