Derecho at the La Jolla PLayhouse
Timely Take on Identity
By: Sharon Eubanks - Aug 10, 2024
Derecho is the latest work mounted by the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.
A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. The play, Derecho, follows two second-generation Latina half-sisters Eugenia and Mercedes, played by Ashley Alvarez and Caro Guzman, respectively.
Eugenia has achieved the mainstream notion of success. She lives in an expensive, stately Georgetown mansion with her husband Gabe (Luis Vega), also a second-generation immigrant. Eugenia’s success comes from her ability to control how the world sees her. Eugenia may be a Latina, but in her climb up the financial and social ladder, Eugenia has buried her heritage so far inside her, she can no longer feel the rhythms of her childhood.
Her sister, Mercedes, a struggling musician and fiercely independent, is staying with Eugenia as she gets back on her feet. Unlike Eugenia, Mercedes cannot control how the world perceives her. She definitely feels and embraces the rhythms of her childhood. Eugenia, is running for a local office in her northern Virginia neighborhood. The storm brewing inside this well-appointed house between the sisters matches the intensity of the storm brewing outside.
Derecho begins with Eugenia obsessing on how the house will look when her guests arrive. She is worried because two guests of different socio-economic backgrounds will meet each other over dinner. Thoroughly comfortable in the upper middle-class world, she wants to boost her campaign and connect with the district’s Latin community.
Jose (Jorge Sanchez Diaz), the man she wants to become her campaign director is an acquaintance from childhood. Jose got into trouble while a teen and succeeded in escaping the school-to-prison pipeline endemic in lower income neighborhoods.
The other man, Jeff (Eric Hagen), is her husband’s former roommate from Georgetown law. Privileged and confident, Jeff is the scion of a prominent DC family real estate empire. He now heads the family’s charitable foundation which funds community projects in the neighborhoods around the DC area.
As the storm builds outside, Mercedes can’t see why Eugenia is so concerned with how things will look, she sees the food and Eugenia as inauthentic and phony. Mercedes goes outside to cook more authentic chorizos.
Gabe comes home and is excited to tell Eugenia that Jeff will provide significant funds to her campaign. Jose arrives with his wife and baby. Not long after, Jeff arrives.
As the storm rolls along, whipping trees around outside, stripping away secrets and exposing betrayals inside this grand house, Eugenia and Mercedes clash, reliving childhood jealousies and good times through flashbacks.
Who are the people in this chaotic world that insists on placing people in poorly defined ethnic boxes? How did they end up in such different circumstances?
At the La Jolla Playhouse thru August 17. Tickets here.