When the need arises to update Greek classical drama, L.A. playwright Luis Alfaro is your go-to guy. Past assignments include Electricidad and Oedipus el Rey. Now Alfaro returns to the outdoor arena at the Getty Villa with Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles,directed by Jessica Kubzansky, co-artistic director of the Pasadena-based Boston Court theater.
In this Euripides re-write, Medea (the fiery Sabina Zuniga Varela) is a young seamstress in East L.A, doing piecework at home for a local dress company. She’s paid poorly but doesn’t object, if only because she’s an illegal immigrant, a mojada (rough translation, wetback). Her plight might not be the stuff of high tragedy, but it certainly is topical and relevant, a page torn out of today’s headlines. In Euripides’ Medea, husband Jason (Hason in Alfaro’s version, played briskly by Justin Huen) treats Medea callously, using her as a tool to further himself, before casting her aside. She then takes vengeance by destroying him through his future (his children)–and by also destroying the princess who could have given him more children. Alfaro riffs on these themes in a less melodramatic way. Hason doesn’t abuse Medea; he just wishes she’d give up her old-country habits and fears and assimilate more into the mainstream, the way he has. He also pushes for 10-year-old Acan (Anthony Gonzalez/Quinn Marquez) to act more American, less Mexican. The dramatic stakes between Medea and Hason don’t heat up until late in the play, when Armida (Marlene Forte), Hason’s boss, shows up and makes some shocking demands. Not only does she order Hason to sleep with her, she tells him to get rid of his wife. The tragic results, with Alfaro following Euripides closely here, are both brutal and bloody. Credit Alfaro with taking the universal themes of Euripides’ ancient drama and refurbishing them in a fresh and invigorating way, using new language (Spanglish) and new characters to make a riveting 2lst century Medea. Kubzansky directs Alfaro’s text in a lean, understated way that well suits the action, and she gets fine performances out of the entire cast, including Vivis as Tita, part-nurse, part-chorus; and Zilah Mendoza as Josefina, a bawdy barrio mujera.
