(Photo credit: Bronwen Sharp)
By: Darryl Reilly
“I didn’t tell my father that I looked through the telescope not to see the stars, but to see my dreams,” says the hero of playwright James Meneses’ absorbing and haunting psychological fantasia, Healing Mined. It is a swirling 75-minute performance piece employing dance, live music and surrealistic flourishes, dramatizing a classic father and son conflict. Pathos abounds and a telescope is totemic.
A woman has died in a car accident. Her husband, an entrepreneurial Spanish immigrant created an unspecified business which has thrived over 25 years. He is so bereft by her loss that he ends up in a mental institution, conversing with the urn containing her ashes. The couple’s adult son is the narrator, he works for the company and planned to leave it to become a performance artist. He visits his father daily and has authoritatively taken charge of their concern.
Via dreamy vignettes and his lovely poetic dialogue, Mr. Meneses offers a simple, artful and powerful exploration of grief, familial discord and reconciliation. The semi-realistic portions are intermingled with fable-style diversions. A princess, an “animal boy,” sand fairies, a neurologically impaired boxer who used to lose fights for a mobster, and a pivotal tsunami, are among the fanciful elements Meneses utilizes for his entrancing, conjoined narratives.
With his captivating everyman persona and soothing vocal cadences, the sunny and youthful Jeremiah Garcia is commanding as the son; he is the show’s worthy centerpiece. Possessed of a resonant, expressive accented voice and a ferocious physicality, the charismatic Luis Carlos De La Lombana is fiery as the anguished father and breathtakingly fantastical as the mystic Animal Boy. Whether supremely dancing solo or creating engaging, diverse characterizations, the vivacious Amilia Shaw is majestic. Ms. Shaw strikingly portrays an archetypal princess, a stalwart nurse and the profound mother.
Through her precise, charged physical staging and gorgeous modern dance choreography, director Rosie Corr brings Meneses’ vision beautifully to the stage with visual elan. Scenic designer Jessica Baker’s arresting all-white minimalism is an ideal landscape. Stationary poles, rectangular rotating white and blue wheelie panels, and movable milk crates, all gleamingly connote various locales and facilitate swift scene transitions. Crimson bursts alternating with stark brightness, and moody dimness, characterize virtuoso lighting designer Mabel McPhee’s integral contributions. Echoes of Satie vary with jaunty passages are heard during composer Natalie Brice’s highly affective, prevalent incidental musical score. It is gloriously performed live by music director and pianist Noah Turner, who becomes a stately presence during the presentation. Stage manager María J. Payares effectively oversaw the performance under review.
This world premiere production of Healing Mined reveals it to be an emotionally resonant and aesthetic theatrical experience.
Healing Mined (through April 27, 2025)
Theaterlab, 357 West 36th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, visit www.healingminedplay.com
Running time: 75 minutes with no intermission