A Poet Returns to the Mission

One of San Francisco’s most revered icons, Spanish poet Federico García Lorca returns to the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts with Asi que pasen cinco años (When Five Years Pass),” his most impossible of “impossible plays.”

Eschewing the conventions of western theater for the structure of an imagist poem,  Lorca’s experiment challenges players and audience to cast off their materialist rationalist mindset and dive into the wet, yearning, dreamy, sometimes comic, always strange language of the soul.   It fits well with the Visual Poetry exhibit currently upstairs at the Center.

Asi que pasen cinco años has three acts or central images:  the boys (in the Young Man’s library), the girls (in the Young Woman’s bedroom), boys and girls together (in a libidinal forest) and apart (back in the library).  Instead of dramatic action there is the interplay of image and counter-image.  Whether or not he meant it to be auto-psychological, Lorca employs a number of symbols and themes that occur throughout his work and the surreal dream-scape echoes those in his deepest songs. As you watch the play

Even with the most experienced cast under the best of conditions, this is a hellishly difficult play to pull off.  And director Hector Zavala has neither. Except for Zavala and one or two others, notably Lindsay Pratt, the cast is uneven in skill, experience and familiarity with Lorca.    It’s clear Zavala and Pratt understand Lorca’s language and intent.  As a result, they turn out wonderfully textured performances and the others, already weak, suffer more in comparison.

Wisely,  Zavala chose a bi-lingual script, using Spanish for the verse parts of the play.  It’s a good move (if you don’t pay attention to the subtitles), not only because Lorca is an immensely lyrical writer, but also the cast, for the most part, has an easier time in Spanish.

Despite his influence in San Francisco’s poetry scene over the last five or six decades, most of us are more familiar with Lorca’s sexual and political preferences than with his poetry.  Zavala deserves our thanks for taking on the challenge of presenting a play that is a poem and an opening into the genius of one of the 20th century’s most magnificent artists.  Despite its flaws, and there are many,  this performance is worth the time (an hour plus) and the money ($15).

Unlike other recent expressions of experimental theater in the Mission, performed with greater technical virtuosity, Asi que pasen cincoaños overflows with mystery, passion, beauty and the unmistakable weirdness of humanity.  Isn’t that what we want when we go to the theater?

Also, the Lorca performance reminds one of the rich tradition of Spanish-language theater in the Mission District. As Cary Cordova notes in her disseration, The Heart of the Mission, as early as 1967, plays by Lorca, Alejandro Casona and Rubén Darío were being performed here—in Spanish.

The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Art will continue this tradition from July 9 to July 12 with Encuentro de Teatro an extravaganza of theater from Latin America that will be performed in Spanish with English subtitles.

Start now with Lorca’s play,   at Mission Cultural Center for Latin Arts, 2868 Mission Street, only two more nights (Thursday June 25, Friday June 26).