Vicki Paris Goodman
Culture Writer
In Cloud Tectonics, playwright Jose Rivera asks more questions than he attempts to answer. He takes his audience on a flight of fancy somewhere within a time/space continuum that exists in parallel with modern-day Los Angeles. Yet the play’s LA is not the city we know. Indeed the metropolis that provides the setting for Cloud Tectonics experiences devastating earthquakes and torrential rains the likes of which even our center of seismic activity has never known.
Heading home on a night of extraordinarily heavy rainfall, 25-year-old airline baggage handler Anibal de la Luna (Daniel Penilla) encounters very pregnant Celestina del Sol (Leah Steiner). On discovering she has nowhere to go, and promising to be a perfect gentleman, Anibal persuades her to come home with him. He is a decent man seeking only to do the right thing.
Celestina is a strange young woman, at once hip to modern culture and profoundly challenged with respect to the passage of time. She has no idea how old she is, when her baby was conceived, nor when she is due to give birth. She has travelled the country in search of the mysterious man who impregnated her.
Anibal and Celestina are attracted to one another, in spite of her determination to find her lover and Anibal’s long-term commitment to a woman. At Celestina’s urging, the two kiss and caress. Circumstances intercede such that they never manage to make love.
Cloud Tectonics is intoxicating in its sensuality, which captivates its audience through mesmerizing performances by Penilla and Steiner. The gentle affection that develops between them is jarred out of its trance-like dream state by the arrival of the coarse-mannered Nelson, who is on short leave from military service. But even his crudeness is quickly softened by the presence of Celestina. Santana’s portrayal of Nelson is also outstanding.
Every audience member is bound to derive something different from Cloud Tectonics. One’s own history of loves experienced and loves lost is bound to determine one’s interpretation of the play.
Is Rivera suggesting that time stands still when someone falls in love? Is Celestina intended to embody some commonly held fantasy of the ideal woman— a perfect 10? And what of the reality that an immortal woman, who can only love a man who will eventually age, can never know lifelong love of someone with whom she can grow old?
A thought-provoking ending brings the play to what seems an appropriate conclusion, to the extent that an existential play such as this is even capable of a meaningful close.
While Cloud Tectonics exemplifies mostly excellent writing in its economical 90-minute single act, its dialogue is sometimes annoyingly literal.
Jonathan David Lewis renders wonderful sound effects, including the constant rain on the roof, the more intense sound of rain when the door is opened, and the sound of a car driving away.
Director Olivia Trevino makes all the right calls in this fine production.
Cloud Tectonics continues at the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre through July 7. General admission tickets are $24, senior tickets are $21 and student tickets are $14 with valid student ID. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, with Sunday matinees at 2pm. The Long Beach Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St. Call (562) 494-1014 for reservations and information. Tickets are also available online at lbplayhouse.org .
