"Action is the antidote to despair" says a wiser-than-she-seems character in Jarred: A Hoodoo Comedy, Tanya Saracho's deceptively lighthearted look at the domestic face of occult beliefs. Skeptics may scoff at the notion of "magic" - i.e., the power of the human spirit to alter the material universe - but "Don't just stand there - do something!" has been recognized as an efficacious remedy for depression since the dawn of time, and empirical evidence suggests that purposeful activity is, indeed, therapeutic in reducing psychological paralysis in victims suffering shock and sorrow.
When Alicia discovers her consort of nearly a decade to be unfaithful, she is devastated. Her girlfriends - peppery Yesenia, motherly Carolina and enigmatic Lulu - advise her to move on, counsel echoed by the practitioners of folk medicine to whom she turns for a means of restoring the status quo after the conventionally passive panaceae prove useless. The witches - oops, señoras - each assign her a task requiring elaborately-planned, meticulously executed mental and physical exercise. Her loyal companions agree to support her in her scheme - even after the operations escalate from simple botanical invocations to outright home invasion - but when stolen graveyard dust is mandated a necessary component to the fulfillment of the petitioner's desires, the question of whether the prize is worthy of the quest becomes expedient.
The play's title refers to the preponderance of household jars as containers for charmed substances, but the 'comedy' element is reflected in its tone. Alicia's journey from melancholy dependence to healthy empowerment is accompanied by such Nancy Drew antics as stakeouts at the delinquent paramour's house and midnight cemetery excursions (Yesenia stumbling along in her stiletto-heeled boots ). And the three consulting shamans, far from being the glamorous priestesses of legend, are revealed to be cottage-industry matrons with children, noisy neighbors and unpaid bills.
Under the co-direction of Belinda Cervantes and the author, the cast for this Teatro Luna production walks the line between sitcom farce and sororal soap with the agility of angels dancing on pins. Dana Cruz never allows Alicia to grow excessively wimpy; Yadira Correa and the triple-threat Saracho exhibit precision timing as the Laurel & Hardy-like Yesenia and Carolina; and Marie Antoinette Flores keeps the eccentric Lulu's cutesiness firmly in check.
But Miranda Gonzalez steals the show as the trio of highly individualized sorceresses speaking in their distinctive dialects. (Anglo playgoers take note: all the important information is in English, but the funniest lines are in Spanish. Bring an interpreter, mis hijas.)
