Press Release
Teatro Visión delivers a powerful, stunning saga
By Mark de la Vina, San Jose Mercury News. May 24 2005
Like a menacing red sun, a burning question arises on seeing Teatro Visión's production of Octavio Solis' "Santos y Santos'':Why isn't this epic drama produced by more theaters?
Solis, who directs the season-closing production of his play for Teatro Visión, is one of the Bay Area's finest playwrights. This is his masterpiece, a sprawling borderland saga that's equal parts Greek tragedy, morality tale and underworld epic cut from the same blood-stained cloth as the Mafia movies of filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
Such a gleaming production and its endorsement by Solis demonstrate how far Teatro Visión, one of the most important Latino companies on the West Coast, has come in 20 years.
The opening-night performance on Saturday reaffirmed what Solis' admirers have long known, that the play's prodigal-son story about dislocation deftly uses humor, violence and painstakingly etched characters to leave an indelible impression.
Solis' direction establishes the piece's fast-break pace and utilizes the expansive Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater stage like a broad canvas.
The cast, which is so clearly having a blast, bounces off scenic designer Michael Walsh's set of ramps, platforms and rolling scrims like springboards for their characters' internal struggles and back-room plotting."Santos'' kicks off with the reunion of idealistic Tomás (Jim Sanchez) and his corrupt attorney brothers, Fernie and Mike (George Castillo, David Joe Cavallero).
Tomás, sort of a Mexican-American Michael Corleone, has been "promoting my race'' as a young lawyer working in the San Diego district attorney's office. When he joins his brother's firm in El Paso, he finds a den of corrupt wolves who guffaw at the notion of working pro bono to help underprivileged Latino clients.
As the play explores how three brothers pervert the dream of their deceased immigrant father Don Miguel (played with grace and elegance by César E. Flores), "Santos'' runs at an almost breakneck clip. Sanchez plays Tomás like a regret-burdened Faustian pawn who sold his soul at wholesale. Castillo as Fernie runs about the stage like a sexually charged rooster itching for a tussle. Cavallero's big, blustery Mike is the deal-making brother who oversees the family's unsavory business. Former City Lights Theater Company artistic director Tom Gough is a hoot as good ol' boy bird-watcher-cum-hit-man Casper T. Willis.
Everything about "Santos'' -- the cast, the staging, the story, its theatricality -- is big, but the show is never slowed by the weight of its ambition. Such a gleaming production and its endorsement by Solis demonstrate how far Teatro Visión, one of the most important Latino companies on the West Coast, has come in 20 years.
''Santos y Santos' by Octavio Solis
Staged by Teatro Visión
Where: Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater, 1700 Alum Rock Road, San Jose
The upshot Octavio Solis' epic drama is a violent thrill ride following a self-destruction course through a distorted version of the American dream.
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays
Through June 5
Running time Two hours and 50 minutes, with one intermission
Tickets$14-$17; (408) 272-9926, www.teatrovision.org