In Book of Grace, Galindo returns to brutality but there’s nothing remotely funny about the barely anger-repressed Vet. The last time we saw Galindo at Catastrophic, he showed his prowess as the brutal alcoholic father in Sam Shepard’s dark dramedy, Curse of the Starving Class. So much so that the play’s shortcomings are mere footnotes to the whole experience. Will the son be ruled by the father? Will he become him? Will he destroy his father and himself in the process? It’s a far meatier proposition, and Kaplún, with his lopsided grin that alternates between vulnerability and menace, slow burns his way into a crescendo of a performance.īut there’s no question this is Galindo and Duran’s show. Female as ultimate casualty, true as it may be, is hardly a narrative thought provoker. More problematic is that Parks paints Grace as the ultimate victim with nothing to offer us but her suffering. Problem is that this leaves us with little to take away from her writing. Parks take the fence metaphor to heart when drawing her characters in this show, giving us distinct villains and victims. The question is, will revenge be on the horizon?
Some we'll understand, some remain opaque. This isn’t a patch-things-over-with-the-old-man house call. But then Buddy’s visit is far from simple as well. She’s even convinced Vet to invite his estranged adult son from a previous marriage to attend a medal ceremony honoring her husband’s service.īut when Vet’s son Buddy (an emotionally fluid Bryan Kaplún) shows up, it becomes clear that neither Vet’s new footing nor Grace’s positive outlook are crystalline. “Looking on the bright side doesn’t cost nothing” she often chirps. Sunny as the yellow diner waitress uniform she wears, Grace lives for the positive in life. His new wife, Grace (Duran) can surely help him with this. Galindo plays Vet, a South Texas border patrol officer obsessed with keeping the immigrants he disdainfully refers to as “them” on their side of the fence and dedicated to his personal rules of containment.īut while Vet’s beloved fence is a manifestation of his bigotry and nationalism, his need to be controlled and controlling belies a far darker motive. That we get them together in one show, reaching new heights even for their enormous talents, is almost too overwhelming to process.
This sigh of joyous relief rests fully on the shoulders of the superlative Luis Galindo and Patricia Duran, two actors dearly missed and eagerly anticipated. To be clear, credit for this hard-earned euphoria doesn’t go to The Book of Grace itself, Suzan-Lori Parks’ explosive yet ultimately weightless story of family trauma, violence, and revenge.
Premieres, local work, excellent creative efforts on and behind the stage -the thrill hasn’t merely been that we’re back, but that we’re back and cooking with a full kitchen once again.Įven still, the argument can be made that finally, thanks to The Book of Grace, onstage at Catastrophic Theatre, we can fully exhale and rejoice in the resurgence of the magical power of theater. There's been much to celebrate since live theater's full-throttle return to Houston.