Su Teatro’s sprawling world premiere of “The Sun That You Are,” perhaps the most ambitious under-taking in its 34 years, is a qualified triumph of stagecraft, pageantry and best of all, music. It’s only a few revisions from unqualified success.
“Sun” (“El Sol Que Tu Eres”), the culmination of six years of work by Su Teatro writer-director Anthony J. Garcia and renowned composer Daniel Valdez, is a contemporary, bilingual reimagining of the Greek Orpheus-Eurydice myth infused with Aztec traditions such as the Day of the Dead. The result is a gritty, contemporary adventure complete with drug lords, sassy gringas, mysticism and ruminations on the origin of love.
A steady drum rhythm underscores the film “Black Orpheus,” which in 1999 inspired Garcia and Valdez to add their own salsa flavoring to this traditional Greek dish. So when “Sun” opens with the urgency of drums reverberating from under your seat, it feels as if the spirits of the dead are being summoned – that, or it’s a Sunday at Mile High Stadium.
In the Greek myth, grieving Orpheus travels to the underworld and persuades Hades to allow his wife, dead from a serpent bite, to return with him to Earth. One condition: He cannot look at her until their journey is done. When Orpheus disobeys, Eurydice is lost to him forever.
Such border-crossings real and metaphoric – between Earth and underworld, past and present, literal and mystic, wealth and poverty, life and death, English and Spanish, Mexico and the U.S. – could not be more significant than they are to Latino religious, political and cultural belief systems.
Su Teatro’s massive presentation, in collaboration with the University of Colorado-Denver, offers Rudi (Elizabeth Botello), a hardened, foul-mouthed American beauty who happens upon the lair of drug lord Narcisso (Jesse Ogas) while hiking with college friends in the southern Mexican mountains. (The irony is rich that our underlord’s Earthly hideout is perched at 11,000 feet). While her friends are lured into Narcisso’s drug-running scheme, Rudi is guided to safety by handsome peasant Orfeo (Hugo E. Carbajal). But on their wedding day, a jealous Narcisso claims Rudi as his queen of the dead.
The at-times-spellbinding second act is a visual and aural treat as Orfeo and his spiritual guide Tia (the always great Yolanda Ortega) must calm trembling mountains and ride enormous turtles on their epic journey toward an inevitably tragic confrontation.
Along the way the audience is treated to marigolds, masks, puppets and one glorious song after the other. Valdez’s score includes acoustic folk songs, traditional ballads, upbeat dances and even rap. Acclaimed artist Carlos Fresquez, credited here as a scenographer, brings additional beauty to Michael Bautista’s set, while Janetta Turner’s costumes, Kent Homchick’s lights and Iaeden Hovorka’s sound add color and power to the storytelling.
“Sun” emanates that special energy that only comes through collaboration. The cast of 22 includes 14 past and present Auraria students working with sublime live musicians and veteran Su Teatro actors.
Carbajal is the emotional epicenter, successfully communicating Orfeo’s arc from farmer-poet to a man who challenges the powers of the universe while withstanding cruelty, temptation, doubt and deception. Ogas is a delicious villain without succumbing to cliché, and Aaron Vieyra provides necessary comic relief as his comic henchman. Garcia also allows talented youngsters such as Hannah Franklin (as Rudi’s pal Annie) to dig deep.
“Sun’s” greatest flaw may be its own ambition. The sheer spectacle at times detracts from the story’s focus, and the final scene goes on so long it robs the climax of its urgency.
There are small, fixable script problems as well. The dialogue is a bit stilted in spots, and Rudi’s foul mouth eventually comes across as lazy writing. Yes, people talk “like that,” but her constant profanity adds nothing to the dramatic quality. It’s a turn-off that makes her seem both inconsequential and unworthy of Orfeo’s love.
The most significant improvement must come in establishing Rudi and Orfeo’s love. Orpheus and Eurydice were so lost in love they frolicked through meadows. But here the Rudi singing Valdez’s gorgeous love songs doesn’t match the Rudi speaking Garcia’s street dialogue, which is so toughened for modern sensibilities their love feels more presumed than earned. It is not yet a heroic coupling, and that lessens the tragedy.
Nevertheless, “Sun” is an enormous effort, a gift not only to the Latino community but to Denver at large.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
*** 1/2 | “The Sun that You Are”
MUSICAL|Su Teatro|Written by Anthony J. Garcia (book) and Daniel Valdez (music)|Directed by Garcia|Starring Elizabeth Botello, Hugo E. Carbajal and Jesse Ogas|King Center, Auraria Campus (Eugenia Rawls Theatre through Sunday, then moves to King Center Production Studio)|THROUGH NOV. 6|8:05 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. some Saturdays and Sundays|2 hours, 25 minutes|$5-$15|303-556-2296 or kennethkingcenter.org.
