After finding great success bringing Dave Eggers' novel You Shall
Know Our Velocity to the stage (Sacrament, 2004), the
Mission's Campo Santo is tackling Junot Díaz' Pulitzer
Prize–winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
It's a wildly ambitious task given that the novel covers three
generations of a Dominican family emigrating to New Jersey, a good dose
of Dominican history, a family curse (fukú), and overflows with
references to '80s nerd pop culture. Much like the book, the first
section of this adaptation, which introduces the overweight "ghetto
nerd" Oscar (Brian Rivera), is a bit overwhelming in style and
language. The English and Spanish dialogue is rapid-fire, with actors
jumping around and shouting over each other. By the second section
— when Oscar's punky sister, Lola (Vanessa Cota), and his mother
(Maria Candelaria) and grandmother (Anna Maria Luera) are introduced
— character and plot ground themselves and the audience can
better appreciate Díaz' acrobatic language. The cast is rock
solid; the highlight is Carlos Aguirre, who not only skillfully plays
multiple roles but also beatboxes a live soundtrack over this whirling
dervish of a play. This production is funny, energetic, and
in-your-face; the exact qualities that make the book so original and
wondrous.
Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Starts: May 14. Continues through June 21, 2009
