‘MALA’ TAKES POIGNANT LOOK AT DAUGHTER CARING FOR A DYING PARENT
Three months ago, the Old Globe presented a play in the round — “El Borracho” — about a Mexican American woman caring for her dying ex-husband. On Thursday, the Globe opened a second play in the round — “Mala” — about a Latina caring for her dying parents.
This may seem like an odd programming choice by the Globe, but as actor-playwright Melinda Lopez says in the opening moments of “Mala,” the subject of adult caregiving is one that most members of her nightly audience can likely connect with. Directed by David Dower with gentle and unadorned authenticity, “Mala” is the funny, honest and moving story of how Lopez and some of her female friends struggled, not always successfully, to be the “good daughter” to their dying parents.
Staged minimally by scenic designer Alexander V. Nichols with just a few props and a surround-scape of snowfall, “Mala” is set in Lopez’s native Massachusetts during the famously harsh winter of 2015, when four back-to-back blizzards dropped 111 inches of snow. That was the year Lopez was caring for her newly widowed and feisty Cuban mother, Frances, in the final months of her life. Despite her best efforts, Lopez said her 92year-old mom called her “mala,” which in Cuba means more than just “bad.” It means your essential self is bad, or you’re “bad to the core.”
The solo play isn’t really a dramatization, but a oneway conversation with the audience members, whom Lopez addresses directly and acknowledges when they react with familiarity to the caregiving experiences she describes. Lopez moves fluidly and comfortably around the square stage,
aiming to connect with everyone.
The play is a series of vignettes based on memos Lopez wrote to herself on her iPhone during the years she cared for her parents. Some of the vignettes are the caregiving stories of Lopez’s close friends. Each scene is introduced
with a single word or phrase projected on the stage. “Mouse Blood” is about Lopez’s sister, a medical researcher who wasn’t always around to help Lopez with the caregiving. “Sponges” is about Frances’ slow recovery after suffering a fall and brain bleed. Lopez blames herself for not getting her mom to the hospital quickly enough after that accident.
The 70-minute play taps into Lopez’s feelings of failure, frustration, grief and denial. It celebrates the raw beauty of helping a fragile and frightened parent transition peacefully to the next world. There’s also the absurdity of daily life with an aging parent, like Lopez’s sister’s decision to help their father renew his driver’s license in his late 80s.
Lopez says in the play that her parents, both Cuban immigrants, sacrificed everything to give their daughters a good life. But their fierce independence and stubbornness made having end-of-life conversations with their children difficult, if not impossible. She hopes this play encourages other families to have those conversations so they won’t face being called “mala” by the people they love most. As an outreach to the region’s Latinx audience, eight performances of “Mala” will be performed in Spanish by actress Yadira Correa.