Who knew that 16h-century Spaniards were so contemporary in their ideas? In Barbara Lhota's delightful "Los Desaparecidos," in its world premiere by Babes with Blades at the Raven Theatre, characters speak like contemporary people, women lead fiercely feminist lives, and intercultural and homosexual love affairs somehow survive against the odds. Perhaps it is anachronistic, but it makes for smashingly entertaining theater, somehow satisfying both as a swashbuckling melodrama and a parodic comment on the form.
The play focuses on sisters Diana (Stephanie Repin) and Isabel (Meghan M. Martinez), raised to be independent of societal pressures and taking delight in their fencing skills. The introduction of Eliana (Rachel Stubbs), an actress, sets into motion a delightfully complex plot, full of cunning plans, daring rescues and hair-raising fights. The whole thing is rather hard to take seriously, but it is always entertaining.
Babes with Blades' mission is to provide women with opportunities for stage combat (this is actually the group's first production in its 10-year history to include men in the cast) and so the violence is unsurprisingly well-choreographed and performed with fierce commitment. However, the performance is also enjoyable when no fights are going on; the play is just fun.
The acting is quite strong overall. Repin and Martinez are powerful anchors as the sisters, and Stubbs is incandescent as the actress who sets the plot in motion. Lisa Herceg gets the best lines as the family's droll servant, Marisol, and makes the most of them with a peerlessly dry delivery.
The play's unapologetic historical revisionism and witty melodrama may strike some as a strange or unworkable combination. For me, the production was an almost criminally enjoyable diversion—just enough dramatic heft to be satisfying, but mostly a fantastically fun ride.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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