In the Time of Butterflies at Mixed Blood Theatre

Mixed Blood Theatre brings another adaptation by Caridad Svich with the world premiere of In the Time of Butterflies (En El Tiempo De Las Mariposas). Produced by artistic director Jack Reuler and directed by José Zayas, it is an engaging and moving portrait of siblings caught up in the stormy politics of the mid-20^th century Dominican Republic.

Svich adapted Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits for Mixed Blood, a raw, highly dramatic and gripping tale. This production is more subdued—a memory play, recalling with pride the heroics of the Mirabel sisters, who were instrumental in ending the cruel dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the 1960s.

Eventually all the sisters participated in this effort in some way, although the cautious Dede resists their attempts to become more directly involved. She survives to keep their story alive and provides a vehicle for constructing the play, and allowing Dede to comment on the action of the play, and guide her young American visitor, a writer, through the larger story. Maggie Bofill plays her younger in the flashback portions; Maria Gonzalez plays her as an older woman. It was amazing how beautifully this worked, even with both actresses frequently on stage at the same time.

What this construct does really well is illuminate all the sister’s individual personalities, motivations for taking action (or not), their dynamic relationships with each other and the “ordinariness” of their lives, in the outset, as the daughters of a well-to-do farmer.

What it does less well is to get us caught up in the resistance movement and how, exactly, the sisters took action against Trujillo. What we saw was the sisters in their garden talking about things. Minerva says near the end of the play, “We spent our entire lives fighting and fighting.”

“Doing what,” I ask. We want to see it! That would be the stuff of great dramatic action. “We’re the famous butterflies,” she adds, which indeed they were. But why? Eventually we know they participated in a plot to kill the dictator, but they had been risking their lives over a long period of time. I left hungry for details about the politics of the day and what parts they played in the resistance.

I had the sense throughout much of the play that the characters, too, were observing themselves, rather than living “in the moment.” (The play is performed bilingually with subtitles, which might have something to do with my impressions about this.) Lines followed lines with the appropriate expression without the understanding of the previous line motivating the next. Only sometimes did the weight of what they said to each other “sink in.” Minerva’s rebuff of Trujillo’s advances—an insult that cost the family dearly—was a turning point moment, but it, too, lacked the intensity the incident clearly deserved.

The style of this play could explain this to a degree. Characters participated in the action, then watched and commented, moving in and out of the present and the past. That actually served the storytelling well, but it didn’t do much for the dramatic action.

There were powerful moments, to be sure. The prison scene used imaginative lighting and sound to support terrific acting by Claudia de Vasco as Minerva, and Thallis Santesteban as the youngest sister, Maria Teresa (called Mate). Adlyn Carreras as Patria, the oldest and most religious among them was dutiful and charming. Bofill’s coolness as the younger Dede was a nice foil for the passion the character shows as an older woman.

Raul Ramos plays multiple roles, including Trujillo, transitioning from one to the other with ease. Hope Cervantes plays the American Woman, connecting us to the country’s violent past, but also to the family’s garden, a place the sisters loved and a beautiful place still. At rise, clouds of projected butterflies chase across the garden, appearing to have been disturbed from this peaceful place—an apt visual metaphor for the story that unfolds.

The play runs through April 27.  Recommended.

Photo: The Four Sisters or “Butterflies.” L-R:  Patria (Adlyn Carreras), Minerva (Claudia de Vasco), Maria Teresa (Thallis Santesteban) and Dede (Maggie Bofill) PHOTO CREDIT: Rich Ryan