Destiny of Desire

Or: ¡Secretos y Sorpresas y Sábanas, mi Dio!

On the whole the world needs more comedies. Or rather it needs more thinking, feeling comedies: stories of righteous women, and the honorable poor, of stigmas washed away, and dreams fulfilled. Thinking farces, and dangerous laughs. Thank heavens then for Karen Zacarías whose live-action telenovela Destiny of Desire sends up and schnoodles the tropes of the worlds most popular form of entertainment. The story of two girls Pilar Esperanza Castillo (Esperanza America) and Victoria Maria del Rio (Ella Saldana North), one the daughter of Armando Castillo (Cástulo Guerra) the richest man in Bellarica, Mexico, the other the perpetually ill and weak hearted child of Hortencia and Ernesto del Rio (Eliza Bocanegra and Mauricio Mendoza) poor but honest folk (but with secrets to hide!) Little do they know but for dark designs on the stormy night of their birth, the girls were switched. Now nature challenges nurture as destiny, snatching our heroines from their respective frosty fates, whisks each into each other’s lives for the ubiquitous stabbings, shootings, incests, amnesias, comas, hidden identities and, of course, romances required for the art.

Under the command of director José Luis Valenzuela Destiny of Desire flourishes under the lavish touch and enormous space of the goodman theater. Zacarías has imagined her play as a Brechtian spectacle (our first moment is the cast, clumped together flinging out, “We are hear to change the system! Deal with it!”) but, aside from occasional “factual asides” and occasional special effects malarkey (oh the wicked fun that can be had with a slap stick) she shows the Verfremdungseffekt the door and lets the politics take care of themselves. The homegrown effect does allow Valenzuela to energize his cast to a beautiful and jovial ballet as they swing about the mastered furniture or pull the acres and acres of creamy muslin that swaddles the set (so infectious is this dance, not even the actual stage hands, when called upon, can resist the urge to take a gazelle like leap into the wings).

Packed with every sort of reversal, and sparking with song and dance, Destiny and Desire is a funhouse for its entire cast, from the light-toed leaps of our heroines to the wry judgments passed by the resident nonsense nun Sister Sonia (Evelina Fernández). Admittedly North’s a little mewly (it works for a sick and sheltered child) but America more than makes up for her in versatility, especially in a clawing-the curtains horror scene. However the scene stealers and lights of the piece are Mendoza’s Ernesto and Ruth Livier’s Fabiola Castillo, birth mother of Victoria Maria, trophy bride of Armando, and instigator of the great switcheroo. Ernesto is the unexpected balance of a piece, deeply afraid for the lives of his wife and daughter, and willing to do any dire deed to protect them. He provides the suffering and the danger that give the play a heft, so it’s humor and happiness can land all that more satisfactorily. Livier’s Fabiola on the other hand is a glorious larger than life creation. Not that she is incapable of honest hurt but for most of the play Fabiola is a vileness of the finest cut. Filching around with the voice and manner of a Tasmanian Devil in heels, her bluster and bite are a joy to behold.

Even if telenovelas are not your cup of tea, Destiny and Desire is well worth the loosening of a collar and the suspension of disbelief. Its story heartfelt, its visuals delicious, its jokes expertly crafted, it is no mindless entertainment but a two hours to shrug off cares and fears and watch a world where the good end happily and the bad unhappily, which is a wonderful tonic to take.