Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Playwright Soaks Up Ideas At Lunch Counters, Diners And, Occasionally, Fancy Restaurants
March 2, 2007
By FRANK RIZZO, Courant Staff WriterTo Luis Alfaro, restaurants, diners and delis give him nourishment in more than one way.
The Hispanic Los Angeles-based poet-playwright-performer gets inspiration - not to mention material - from the overheard and sometimes overheated conversations of people interacting in public places, especially when meals are involved.
The world of food is the starting point of his new play about all-consuming appetites, "Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner," playing at Hartford Stage through April 1.
Read Full Article"Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner" - Clever and Complex
Luis Alfaro's "Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner," continuing at Hartford Stage through April 1, (happily) nags at theatergoers. The play is about disorder whether that focuses upon food or sex. It's about being fat, about being lonely.Actress Elisa Bocanegra inhabits the incredulously large Minerva, the sister who (no matter what she tries) is ever-expansive. Her husband Al (Felix Solis) is reasonable, empathetic, encouraging, and faithful. But, he is unable to say "I Love You."
Yetta Gottesman plays Alice, the other sister - who craves sex, wishes for affection, and remains as unfulfilled as Minerva. She and Officer Fred Martinez (James Martinez) go at one another beneath the covers. They might be a couple but cannot commit. This cop seems, for much of the time, to be emotionally vacant.
The talented Lisa Peterson directs the production and her presence is key. This play begs for and receives specific instructions which will help make it fly.
Read Full ArticleA Mostly Satisfying `Breakfast' Play Examines Obesity, Love
March 9, 2007
By DEBORAH HORNBLOW, Courant Theater Critic
Playwright Luis Alfaro is working with a lot of ideas in his new comedy "Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner."
The latest work by the writer and performance artist who is Hartford Stage's 2007 Aetna American Voices playwright-in-residence is jam-packed with notions about obesity and invisibility, the search for love and connection, sex and body image, the responsibilities of marriage and commitment, and the family ties that can literally bind us to Earth, but which sometimes restrict our development as individuals.
Read Full Article- Twinkies and Transcendence
Food And Sex Take Center Stage
By Karen Bovard
March 22 2007
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Through April 1, Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., (860) 527-5151Help yourself to the lavish theatrical dish currently being served over at Hartford Stage -- especially if you like to laugh, you think sex can be funny, and you like your theater layered with liberal amounts of imagination. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner is a complex blend of ingredients: humor, wisdom, social commentary and wonder. It's a very satisfying meal.
Playwright Luis Alfaro (a Macarthur 'genius' grant winner) is a fearless and funny visionary. He also has a finely tuned ear for language, especially Chicano-inflected Southern California speech. There are some terrific monologues made up of lists in this show. Alfaro has conjured up four working-class characters caught up in contemporary real world dilemmas, and by show's end each has had at least a taste of transcendance.
Central is Minerva, who is fat and getting fatter, no matter what she does. Actor Elisa Bocanegra brings heart and athleticism to this part, and it requires both (as well as several fat suits). Minerva's got an invisible Chinese pen pal, MiChi, who is even fatter, in whom she can confide. She's also got a loving husband, Al, who does his best by her as she blows up. As played by Felix Solis, Al says some outrageous things and yet manages to be irresistible.
Minerva has a thinner sister, Alice, who can't seem to get enough sex. Yetta Gottesman combines ditziness with yearning for something more permanent as she pursues relationship with her commitment-phobic lover, Officer Fernandez. James Martinez serves up some howlingly funny moments with bad disco dancing and self-pitying falsetto song stylings in this role: and yet, in the end, we can't dismiss him, either.
All four actors are up to the challenge Alfaro sets, of finding the humanity within the comedy and offering up a kind of noble surrender as fantastic events overwhelm their lives. Within the comedy lurks lots of material worthy of contemplation: Where do our insatiable hungers originate? What does parental abandonment have to do with it? Can we take sufficient care of ourselves when we are locked into conventional family roles? What does appearance have to do with identity? How can we best love each other?
The production also benefits enormously from skilled direction. Lisa Peterson has devised a whole bunch of snappy transitions between the brief scenes -- aided by a crack set crew decked out in chef whites and headsets -- that keep the pace popping. Each act ends with a striking and surprising image. Designers have provided a host of funny touches on the set and costumes and integrated supertitles into the action so that we are used to looking up. The musical underscoring blends Asian instrumentation with a salsa beat. All the collaborators seem to be working at the top of their game.
Highly entertaining but not too sweet, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner offers real nourishment along with pleasure. It's adult fare, because of the multiple sex scenes. And it's a great reframing of body image issues in the face of our thin-obsessive culture.â—
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