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Soho Rep has been playing itsimminent departurefrom the downtown black box fondly known as Walkerspace very cool.
Are there ways both our organizations can learn from each other?
Whatin theater and everywhere elseare we to do as the bulldozers of avarice and bigotry roll on?
The line between ethical imperative and basic survival strategy has long since been chipped away.
Its time to invite the village in and start making stone soup.
Pulling backseveralcurtains, actually.
But Im getting ahead of myself.
Im scared I have to do something drastic soon …
I think Im going to have to kill her.
When thats chucked in a blender with his own penchant for spiky-savvy verbosity, the results fizz and pop.
Hadnt I been her mostly loyal star pupil all these years?
demands Chukwus Branden, whose self-satirizing preening is tuned at just the right frequency.
Chukwu pirouettes through this kind of winkingly pompous spiel with agility and verve.
Alina could be forgiven for the mistake.
Dont kill her, he says.
Give her to me.
I want her … Or, wait, I could buy her from you?
You could sell her to me … How much do you want?
Carmelita Tropicanathe brassy, banana-wearing lesbian chanteuse from Havana who lives inside Alina Troyanois suddenly a tradable commodity.
I guess I just didnt …
I didnt understand that there was this whole other metaphysical element to it, his Branden side falters.
I just thought we were talking about … you know … IP?
A photo of her at theWOW Cafein the 80s.
Another where shes playing a … sexy cockroach?
And over here a feathered turban, a bejeweled brassiere!
Theres a weird beauty here too, even something fearsome.
I hope its an enticement.Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!joyously follows Walts adviceHave you tried containing multitudes?
What if more plays were this playful?
What if, like Fornes, we turned to possibility rather than to formula?
I kind of hate it here.
Its so beige and unfree.
So, saysCarmelita Tropicana, imagine something else.
Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!is at Soho Rep through December 15.
