“Laughs In Spanish” Review

Laughs in Spanish by Miami native Alexis Scheer is a love letter to her city, specifically the Wynwood neighborhood, home to Miami’s vibrant art scene. The relationship between the play’s central mother-daughter duo, Estella (played by Gaby Tortoledo) and Mariana (played by Mariana Mondragón), comes with a tumultuous past, much like Wynwood’s boom, bust, and renaissance, from the tenderness of Mariana’s childhood, to feeling abandoned by her mother through adolescence and her young adult life, to a movement towards reconciliation in the final beat of the play.

Estella and Mariana’s relationship is not the only one under the microscope in this 80-minute romp, as we also watch Mariana’s gallery assistant, Carolina (played by Marcela Paguaga) and her boyfriend Juan (played by William Guevara) navigate big questions about their future, and Estella’s personal assistant, Jenny (played by Magali Trench) express the true nature of her long-held feelings towards Mariana. Amidst this web of personal throughlines, the play also contains an art heist, an impending criminal trial, and the onslaught of artistic hobnobbing that is Art Basel. Is your head spinning yet?

Gaby Tortoledo and Mariana Mondragon in Laughs in Spanish, written by Alexis Scheer, directed by Victoria Collado. GableStage, May 25-June 23, 2024.

Victoria Collado’s direction does well to maintain an appropriately manic pace throughout, aided by energetic performances from the cast and their tongue-twister fast exhortations and exclamations in Spanglish. Set in stark contrast, some of Mariana’s funniest moments are when she code-switches to her professional gallery owner telephone voice, just moments after full-bodied panic attack meltdowns. Scheer’s writing is fast and funny, full of one-liners and incisive observations on the challenges of working in the art world, from racism to colorism, to nepotism, to the gaping class divides between art collectors, artists, and artists’ subjects.

Laughs in Spanish, written by Alexis Scheer, directed by Victoria Collado. GableStage, May 25-June 23, 2024.

The all-Miami-based creative team collaborated beautifully to transform the stage into a stark, white-walled gallery space, complemented by original paintings from famous local artist Diana “Didi” Contreras. Gema Valdes found some fabulous, vividly colorful pieces for her costume design, and scenic designer Frank J. Oliva made smart use of the retractable upstage wall, intermittently used to reveal a DJ set-up and, later, an art opening. Ernesto K. Gonzalez brought Miami to life with his sound design, song choices, and live DJ sets during the choreographed dance breaks to transition between scenes. Tony Galaska’s lighting design demonstrated several clever choices: rectangular spotlights on the walls to show where the stolen paintings should have been, a white neon strip around the border of the stage to emphasize the gallery’s chic aesthetic, blaring reds, blues, and greens for the dance interludes and the police siren on the cop car.

All the characters are united in their quest for love and acceptance, as much as each of them tries to emphasize their own self-reliance. The challenge of being a working mother, particularly a working mother in a creative field, is explored from every angle. Mariana rebukes her incredibly famous actress mother for abandoning her while prioritizing her career, which forced Mariana to take care of herself from a young age. Mariana proclaims, “I don’t want to be in the spotlight, because that means everyone else I know is in the dark.”

Mariana Mondragon and Gaby Tortoledo in Laughs in Spanish, written by Alexis Scheer, directed by Victoria Collado. GableStage, May 25-June 23, 2024.

However, there are more parallels than contrasts between the two women’s plights, as Mariana finds herself alone, single, and stressed, running her gallery by herself. Like mother, like daughter, workaholism runs in the family, and Estella’s celebrity can be just as isolating as Mariana’s stoicism. As Estella herself admits earlier in the play, “That is what mothers do. We ruin our daughters with our good intentions.” Estella’s final monologue conveys the depth of her emotion for Mariana, and her pride in the woman she has become, creating the possibility of a new chapter in the women’s relationship. For as many themes, existential questions, and madcap antics as this play explores, finding a way to heal old wounds and make peace with one’s origin story is no laughing matter.

GableStage’s production of Laughs in Spanish runs May 25-June 23, 2024, with a streaming ticket option for virtual attendance. Tickets and more information are available here: https://www.gablestage.org/laughs-in-spanish/