GALA’s ‘Choke’ Confronts Loyalty and Love in a Polluted World
GALA debuts rising queer playwright Emilio T. Infante's incisive new drama Choke: Sucede Hasta en las Mejores Familias"
It happens even in the best families. Gustavo Guerrero, proud paterfamilias of Emilio T. Infante’s poignant Choke: Sucede Hasta en las Mejores Familias, invokes the phrase practically in jest, but he’s not joking or making coded reference to his lesbian daughter Cassandra and her wife Zulema.
Ailing, permanently attached to his oxygen supply, the retired refinery worker is trying to make light of the load of struggles, both physical and financial, threatening to collapse his house around him and his patient wife Esperanza.
Directed by Gustavo Ott, in a world-premiere, Spanish-language production, Gerardo Ortiz González portrays Gustavo with all the gusto and stubbornness of a man who refuses to submit to struggle. Still, he and Esperanza, well-played by María del Mar Rodríguez, might have no choice but to retreat from their modest Baltimore home.
Tucked in the shadow of the petrochemical refinery where he worked for 40 years, they’ve learned to live with the risks of explosions, gas leaks, and chemical spills, along with the constant air and water pollution, but now he’s sick and the house literally is falling apart around them.
Scenic designer Grisele González presents their home in evocatively detailed cross-section, with junk and debris collected beneath the house, cluttering its foundations. Inside, rooms are warm, yet decaying, with loving nods to the family’s Puerto Rican heritage and the Baltimore Orioles, but a gaping sinkhole in the living room floor.
For years, Cassandra (Giselle González) has urged her parents to move from this house, and escape the toxic hazards of the neighborhood. Get away from that damned refinery. And, true to her mythical namesake, her urgent warnings have gone unheeded.
The playwright confidently mingles myth with the trenchant environmental message and simmering familial conflict. Ott’s directorial hand, particularly in the usage of score towards the end, occasionally tips that conflict too far towards melodrama.
But, for the most part, realism resonates in the premise, characterizations, and costume design. The set embellishes reality with style, as does Hailey LaRoe’s projection design incorporating haunting video footage of the city’s Key Bridge collapsing into the Patapsco River, a bridge over troubled waters.
Tension between Cassandra and her parents, we learn, has persisted for years, resulting in their recent estrangement. This trip to Baltimore from the West Coast to attend a family funeral is the first time Cassandra’s been home in ages.
It’s also the first time that Gustavo and Esperanza are meeting Cassandra’s wife, Zulema, portrayed with admirable subtlety and skill by Joi Kai, as a knowing outside set of eyes and ears on the Guerrero fam. Zulema remains ever-ready to jump in and assist however necessary because she loves her woman.
Kai and González breathe life into the primacy of Zulema and Cassandra’s partnership for both women. They will have each others’ backs, regardless of what happens between Cassandra and her parents.
Everything hinges on whether or not Cassandra can persuade them to move. There is no plot to speak of beyond that dilemma, though the engaging ensemble chemistry largely overcomes the thin plot.
Neither the text nor cast chemistry clarifies for me, however, whether Esperanza, whom Cassandra generally refers to by name, is her biological mom or stepmother, but their bond was compelling, just as the stubborn pride of Gustavo, still defending “his refinery” as if it were a beloved member of his family.
Choke: Sucede Hasta en las Mejores Familias (★★★☆☆) runs through May 18 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. Performances are in Spanish with English surtitles. Tickets are $48 to $50. Call 202-234-7174 or visit www.galatheatre.org.
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