St. Jude

Playwright/performer Luis Alfaro's autobiographical solo centers on his bifurcated working-class Latino family: father a devout Catholic, mother a Pentecostal Christian. Alfaro looks back on his childhood with a mixture of amusement and disquiet: the richness and quirkiness of his upbringing was blighted by episodes of emotional and sexual abuse.

When he was sixteen he ran away from home and hit the streets, acting out his rebellion and disillusionment in a furious, drug-driven way. Saved from self-destruction by his innate intelligence and sense of humor, he eventually found the strength to reconnect with his family, especially his father. Still vigorous at 80, not only working six days a week in a factory but playing soccer on Sundays, the patriarch seemed to be indestructible, only to be suddenly felled by a heart attack.

The shocked Alfaro then moved into another, more challenging phase of his life: coping with his father's mortality. It involved spending long days and nights in hospitals, dealing with endless doctors, nurses and surgeons.

The experience of a child caring for a parent is a familiar one, but Alfaro manages to put his own spin on it by going deep into character -- not just his father's but his own. The truth he finds there, the very essence of his origins, is revealed in a shatteringly powerful and moving way.