“Destiny of Desire”
provides a merry romp through telenovela melodrama — and a sneaky one through social mores, Matthew J. Palm writes.
Two births, a violent storm, a baby swap, a death — then a resurrection — and that’s just in the prologue.
The actors tells us at the start of Karen Zacarías’s new play, onstage at the Garden Theatre, that they’re presenting “an unapologetic telenovela.” And that they do. If “Destiny of Desire” is unapologetic, it’s equally lively, charming and full of laughs.
Zacarías, award-winning writer of “Mariela in the Desert” and many other plays, skillfully walks a high wire of ideas and emotions. She pays tribute to telenovelas — the limited-run soap operas that dominate Spanish TV — while she simultaneously calls them out for their regressive ideals on beauty, class and gender roles: Why is blonde better? Why is lighter skin preferred? Why can’t young women dream of marriage
and becoming doctors? She doesn’t hit you over the head with these passing thoughts, served with comic escapism.
Even when the actors use the soapy story’s twists to deliver sobering, and occasionally awkward, statistics on modern society, it’s with a light touch. And Zacarías wobbles only a few times — most noticeably at a death scene in which the audience doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
But otherwise, director Melissa Crespo keeps the funny coming with remarkable consistency while, just as on TV, the melodramatic story grabs hold of you.
The best soap roles always go to women, and they shine here — especially dynamo-in-heels Sonia Roman as the steely rich witch whose theme song is “Pain Makes Me Beautiful.” (Oh yes, like any telenovela worth its margarita salt, this one has musical interludes.)
Alina Alcantara provides the show’s heart as a warm peasant woman, and Blanca Goodfriend adds spice (and snappy oneliners) as a nun with secrets to spare.
Lighting designer Eric T. Haugen creates moments of beauty with Alexander Whittenberg’s striking scenic design, transforming the Garden into a ghostly remembrance of its abandoned years.
This is only the fourth production of “Destiny Desire,” so it’s a real coup for the Garden Theatre. The fact the actors are all of Latino descent, as is the director, shouldn’t be underestimated either. It subliminally makes it OK for the non-Latinos in the audience to laugh as much as they want. If the ace cast is in on the fun, then it’s understood we’re not laughing at them, we’re laughing with them.
People of different backgrounds, ethnicities and creeds enjoying a shared experience? Now that’s a telenovela-ready happy ending.