By Venus Zarris

UrbanTheater Company and PEOPLE*S THEATER of Chicago deliver a powerful Midwest premiere of Reinaldo Povod’s Cuba and His Teddy Bear. Delving deep into a dark world, Povod’s script is inhabited by richly developed and despondently damaged characters that move about in a bleak reality. Survival drives them to desperate measures but humanity connects them to each other, albeit in dysfunctional ways.

Once again collaborating with profoundly gifted Set Designer Jorge Felix, the atmosphere is picture perfect. Felix creates a 1980’s NY Lower East Side tenement apartment with detail and depth, visually realizing the world of the story by utilizing The Batey Urbano space to its full potential.

Director Marilyn Camacho compiles a remarkable ensemble. Hank Hilbert as Jackie, small time drug dealer cohort to small time drug dealer Cuba, displays brilliant comic timing that provides necessary relief from the story’s heavy content. Sometimes subtle and sometimes larger than life, Hilbert is a master of expression and a master of seizing the moment without stealing the focus. Ivan Vega and Erynn Mackenzie light up the stage with explosive energy as Redlights and Lourdes, party friends of Cuba. Kamal Hans is genuinely frightening as the menacing Dealer.

Julian Martinez is frenetically transfixing as Che, junkie/writer mentor to Teddy. Christian Kain Blackburn creates a heartbreaking vulnerability as Teddy and Madrid St. Angelo creates a bombastic, sweetly sensitive and explosive Cuba. These are complex characters in a convoluted story but this cast is completely invested, each and every one delivering exceptional performances.

UrbanTheater Company and PEOPLE*S THEATER of Chicago have histories of choosing challenging material and Cuba and His Teddy Bear is no exception. Although the cast is completely engaging, the dramatic timing often fades and stalls. We are watching cocaine dealers who frequently sample their own wears but the pace of the dialogue at times seems more fueled by Quaaludes. There is too much real time spent in the heads of the characters and so the interaction looses some of its spontaneous reality. When the pace picks up we are riveted. The running time could stand a twenty to thirty minute shave without damaging content but rather heightening the intensity and creating more powerful dramatic builds. Tightening the pace would move this show from an impressive piece of work to a spellbinding triumph. All of the components are there.

As it stands, Cuba and His Teddy Bear is an excellent and compelling dramatic endeavor on the verge of greatness.

3 STARS

(“Cuba and His Teddy Bear” runs through December 13 at The Batey Urbana, 2620 W. Division Street. 773-371-1868)

People*s Theater of Chicago

UrbanTheater GRIND

Cuba and His Teddy Bear production photos by Anthony Aicardi. Welcome to Aicardi Specialties

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.