Windows to the Guts of the Soul

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Sylvia Bofill’s new play, Windows, centers around three women – mother, daughter, and grandaughter- seamlessly jumping around in time (past and present tenses are disjointed), memories (dreams and unfulfilled goals abound), and tone (funny, touching, morbid). The women reminisce about Puerto Rico and even get nostalgic about the island, but never in an overtly exaggerated way: this is not a “Latino” play or a play about Puerto Rican identity. The characters happen to be Puerto Rican, and hints of Puerto Rican history and its nostalgia serves as an analogy between mother-daughter bonds and its burdens. The acting is superb, especially Mercedes Herrero as Camila, a middle-aged widowed journalist who lives with regret and with the (self-created?)torment of her repressive mother Angelina (Carmen de Lavallade) and her detached daughter (Milena Pérez Joglar).

Bofill, a Puerto Rican playwright and director in her early thirties who graduated from Columbia’s MFA program, is ingeniously creative when directing: for much of the play, Camila’s bed becomes the center piece of the stage, alternating between almost a floating ship where characters and lovers interact or a haven or escape zone where an angst-ridden Camila sleeps and sleeps refusing to wake up. If I have failed to describe the plot of Windows is because its just eso: about relationships, about families, about contemplating life and maybe doing something about it.
Muy recomendable, very enjoyable.

Written and Directed by Sylvia Bofill

October 19th-November 5th, Wednesday-Saturday @ 8 PM, Sunday @ 3PM
Location: The Workshop Theater, 312 W. 36th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues)
Tickets are $20. www.intar.org to purchase tickets or call 212-279-4200.
OJO: LAST WEEK!

play puerto rico review