It is a good thing Valerie Mercado was only pretending to be Lucifer in the bold but blemished production of "El Jardin" (The Garden). The real Prince of Darkness would have been mighty angry about all the surrounding noise.
Director Goya Flores set playwright Carlos Morton's modern day Chicano twist on the epic tale of good and evil in Southwestern College's Botanical Garden. Flores gets style points for vision and creativity, but environmental factors got in the way.
"El Jardin" had audience members laughing, but straining to hear the punch lines. Adan and Eva, played by Fernando Gonzalez and Yvette Medina, took audience members back to the days when Man was tempted by la serpiente. Only instead of the Garden of Eden, the couple has moved out of Eden and into middle-class comfort in Chula Vista.
Morton sprinkled enough Spanish into his play to give it a South Bay flavor. Phrases like "Stay with your mamasita" and "My little quesadilla" enhanced the humor without leaving non-Spanish speakers in the dark.
Christopher Colon (Sergio Diaz) and Taino (Geo Alva) gave a brief history of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire. Taino traded tobacco and mango for Colon's smallpox and whiskey. In the name of Christ, Colon planned to pay the Aztecs five coconuts a day to build churches and a freeway from El Paso to Santa Fe. Taino's submission to Christ felt more like a G-rated version of "Buffy" as Colon used the Cross to overpower Taino.
Having Adan and Eva's story told at SWC's Botanical Garden might have seemed like a good idea, but cloudy, cold weather and outside noise diminshed the full impact of the play. Car radios provided an unwelcome hip-hop soundtrack, overwhelming the actors' soft voices. Medina had to shout in order to be heard above the noise, sapping the emotional energy and subtlety her words might have had as she realized the full extent of eating the forbidden fruit.
Gonzalez's Adan took a sudden turn as soon as he bit the apple. Adan's swaying and guiding persona disappeared, replaced by bitterness and recrimination.
Clearly, the 21st century was no better for Adam and Eve than were the days of Eden. Hard economic times were doing what they always do in America, turning people against each other. Temptation and frustration abound. La serpiente convinced Adam that he lost his job due to his skin color and tempted him to take revenge and kill a gringo.
Mercado, who also played Maton, Padre Ladron and La Muerte, was one of the few voices that could be clearly heard. Her voice as Padre Ladron and Alva's acting as her puppet was a highlight. Serpiente continued to weave her evil and used Padre Ladron as an instrument to fan Eve's confusion and discourage her faith in a "plastic Jesus." Contradictory to the sanctity of Men and Church, Mercado's words of lust, greed and hatred to Eve were emphasized by Alva's sleazy actions as he rubbed her arm.
Classic themes like the triumph of good over evil were often lost on an audience that just could not hear. But maybe that is Flores' genius. Important things can get lost in the din of modern life. Art, in the end, did imitate life.
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