“A Park in Our House”
Written by Nilo Cruz
Showing: Teatro Vista at Victory Gardens Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln, through Dec. 9
Tickets: $20-$45
Contact: (773) 871-3000

By Lawrence Bommer

CFP theater editor

Some plays are more dream than drama, with all the lowered expectations that come with nocturnal visitations. A dream’s pictures can take on an urgency that daylight dissipates in an instant. But theater happens with our eyes open. Powerful in its poetry but weak in plot, this Midwest premiere by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz (author of “Anna in the Tropics”) has many lovely moments rich with olfactory images. Dennis Zacek’s ensemble cast their separate spells. But the characters are all dressed up in metaphors with no place to go.

The only tension in this static play is the a1970 find themselves mired in the tropical funk of Castro’s censorship, a voucher and barter economy, and forced labor in the sugar cane fields for artists who depart from socialist realism. These include Ofelina (warm-hearted Charin Alvarez), a woman dealing half-heartedly with dreams of having too much hair and wholeheartedly with a husband (irascible Gustavo Mellado) who literally fears he’s losing his backbone as he imagines a park that he knows his fellow bureaucrats will never let him create. Ofelina’s cousin Fifo (Joe Minoso) is a banned photographer who longs to escape the island, as do Ofelina’s adopted niece Pilar (Marcela Munoz) and nephew Camilo (Bubba Weiler), a boy left mute by the unexplained death of his parents.

Into their quirky world comes Dimitri, a Russian botanist (a contagiously sadsack Lance Baker) who brings with him exotic overtones of snow, troikas and “pure” Communism (not the bastardized kind that Hilario feels has kept Cuba backwards). Dimitri has a gratuitous affair with the much younger Pilar, then seeks asylum in Brazil. An equally pointless suicide attempt forces Camilo to find his voice, at which point he becomes just as vaporous as the rest of the characters.

Everything here feels, well, filtered, as if Cruz were trying to recreate a bunch of dreams from a very troubled night. Interestingly, Samuel Ball’s latticework set, with its sultry colors and mysterious passageways, serves the moods well, as do the well-honed performances. But “A Park in Our House” is ultimately as insubstantial as its imaginary title setting.