THEATER REVIEW
“Sotto Voce”
Grade: B
Through May 8. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. $20-$30. Aurora Theatre, 128 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. 678-226-6222. www.auroratheatre.com.
Bottom line: Buoyed by three superb performances.
Saqueil Rafaeli is an impassioned young man from Havana who embarks on a mission to honor the dying wish of his grandfather. At the turn of the new millennium, he journeys to New York on a temporary student visa to research the true story about the 1939 fate of the S.S. St. Louis. Transporting more than 900 Jewish refugees to freedom from Nazi Germany, the ship was shamefully denied permission to land — in Cuba, the United States or Canada — and forced to return its passengers to Europe and an imminent doom.
Bernadette Kahn, an aged and agoraphobic German novelist living in Manhattan, has a unique connection to the event that makes her Saqueil's prime person of interest. Basically "stalking" her by phone and email (even delivering her flowers at one point), he pleads for Bernadette's help in telling "the human story of a forgotten tragedy." And, as a result, she's reluctantly compelled to confront a defining chapter of her life that she can't forget.
Thus forms the beguiling basis of Cuban playwright Nilo Cruz’s “Sotto Voce,” which centers on the profoundly personal relationship that develops between two characters who, although they frequently share the same space on stage, never actually meet in the play.
The intimate situating of director Justin Anderson’s production in Aurora Theatre’s smaller studio space simply complements the confessional tone of the piece. In its own comparatively modest way, Trevor Carrier’s set design of Bernadette’s library is every bit as handsome and noteworthy as the more sprawling library that overtook the main stage in Aurora’s recent “Into the Woods.”
The action in “Sotto Voce” continuously shifts between the present and the past, and the transitions and distinctions between the two are stylishly evoked in the moody lighting (designed by Ben Rawson) and the understated but effective use of video projections (Daniel Terry is billed as the show’s technical director).
On the downside, a prolonged sequence involving a “virtual” date between Saqueil and Bernadette comes across as singularly unfocused and contrived.
But Anderson elicits smart, genuinely felt performances from his three-member cast. The play’s third character is Bernadette’s feisty Colombian housekeeper, caretaker and confidant, Lucila, a go-between of sorts, sensitively portrayed by Denise Arribas (in a thoughtful variation on her last role in the zany Aurora/Horizon Theatre co-production of “Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike”).
Louis Gregory is better known for his more brooding and less personable roles (“Finn in the Underworld” and “Good Boys and True,” both at Actor’s Express). Here, as the conceivably “broken” Saqueil, the actor taps and displays unforeseen resources — with an authentic Cuban accent, to boot.
Best of all, lately relegated to (still-impressive) supporting performances in shows ranging from a comedic “The Importance of Being Earnest” (with Georgia Shakespeare) to the tragic “Wit” (at Aurora), it’s especially rewarding to savor the ever-formidable Marianne Fraulo in an overdue star turn as the deeply haunted but finally hopeful Bernadette.
In her quiet and wistful remembrances of things past, “Sotto Voce” rings true and speaks volumes.
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