Review: LA VALENTÍA at GALA Hispanic Theatre

A ghost is already sitting on stage - in sheet and eyeholes - as the audience files in for "La Valentía" at GALA Hispanic Theatre.

Spirits abound in the U.S. premiere of the 2018 comedy by Spanish playwright Alfredo Sanzol, but perhaps none as blatant as the white-sheeted one perched on the couch by director José Zayas to begin the piece.

The story concerns an ancient family homestead that's been left to a pair of sisters who are at odds about what to do with it. Trini, dismayed by the noise of an encroaching highway outside the door wants to sell. Guada is determined to stay and continue the family legacy; she's already rented a room to visitors through Airbnb to help fund it.

Trini's plan is to scare her sister out of the place, hiring a kooky local company specializing in just that - like the crew in the Spanish-language HBO comedy "Los Espookys." But the Airbnb visitors, who arrive in odd matching costumes and no suitcases, turn out to be the ghosts of ancestors who built the house centuries ago.

Apparitions are big in recent entertainments - the darlings of network sitcoms like "Ghosts" and "Not Dead Yet," so their friendly presences are both familiar and welcome in a way they once were in "Topper."

All of that lends a sitcom feel to "La Valentía," a title roughly translated to courage, bravery or, here, valor.

The sitcom feel may also be due to Luz Nicolás, the GALA stalwart who has used her comedy chops in so many of their productions. As Trini, she exaggerates her exasperation at her sister for maximum laughs, with a heightened physicality that had her flipping her slip-on shoes so high at one point, they landed in another room of the set. A one-woman "I Love Lucy," she likely devised her hiding-her-cell-phone-in-her-bra business herself.

Opposite her as Guada, the Spanish actress by way of New York, Sandra Gumuzzio is quite credible as her sister, with connections underlying their surface disagreements. She's got comic skills as well as some physical turns, including one that is probably not meant to be taken as lightly.

There is also comic gold in the duo Specter Brothers, the scare-for-hire duo with Carlos Castillo as the hopelessly love-struck one and Delbis Cardona as the theatrical one (who had so sit under the sheet at the show's start).

Victor Salinas and Paloma de Vega are a pleasant and welcome presence as the Airbnb patrons.

Still, we never learn a lot about these pairs, despite the fact the play seems to go on a little long, a feeling that may come from the sitcom conditioning, a world where problems are expected to be resolved in a half hour or less. Instead, there is some extra intermingling between the pretend and real ghosts and a ghostbuster firm thrown in before it's all over.

All of this plays out on Sam Klaas' detailed and complex set of the old mansion in question. But director Zayas is presented with a staging problem a couple of times when some of the spirits are supposed to become invisible. He ends up accomplishing it with a buzzing light cue from Christian Henrriquez and echoey microphones from the supposedly vanished ghosts from sound designer Justin Schmitz.

A bigger sound issue is the noisy highway that is supposed to be underlying reason to sell the ancestral home. While horns are heard honking the first time a door opens, it's not consistent enough throughout to comically drive home the point. Something this broad could clearly withstand the kind of repetition of say, the face-full of snow W.C. Fields got every time he uttered "it's not a fit night out for man nor beast" in "The Fatal Glass of Beer" 90 years ago.

As it is, some of the biggest laughs in the work are courtesy costume designer Alexa Duimstra, including one walk-on that brings down the house.

Minus any heavy messaging, "La Valentía" delivers light and amusing entertainment, aided mightily by the lively performances.

Running time: About 100 minutes, no intermission.

Photo credit: Luz Nicolás and Sandra Gumuzzio in "La Valentía." Photo by Stan Weinstein.

"La Valentía," in Spanish with English subtitles, runs through May 14 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St NW, Washington DC. Wearing of masks is optional if fully vaccinated, but mandatory at performances May 27, May 7 and May 12. Tickets at 202-234-7174 or online.

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