Playwright Elaine Romero has crafted some compelling scripts β βBarrio Hollywoodβ has a grace and a strong story, and βThe Fat-Free Chicana and the Snow Cap Queenβ is a multi-layered and funny play.
But βLike Heaven,β which Arizona Repertory Theatre opened Wednesday, is not among her better works.
The Brent Gibbs-directed piece deals with four women who are friends, then adversaries, then friends again. Itβs about infidelity, betrayal and forgiveness. Itβs about the desire for and fear of a new life. Itβs about the journey of discovering who you are and what you want.
The problem is that none of those issues are explored with any depth, and the charactersβ reactions to such things as betrayal are way out of step with reality. There are enough loose ends in the script to distract.
And then there is this: There was much arguing on stage, and yelling for the bulk of the 80-minute play.
This cast of University of Arizona students β Rebecca Galcik, Anza Keller, Eavan Clare Brunswick and Gabriela Giusti β is strong and being the almost-pros that they are, they embraced the characters.
The script shows promise β the characters, though not well developed, had hints of what they could be if they were more fully fleshed out. The story, often quite funny, needed to be fuller, to breath more.
This is the first full staging of this play. It contains good ideas that deserve to be explored. We hope Romero goes back to her keyboard and gives us a more heavenly βLike Heaven.β
