IF YOU GO
What: Lorca con un vestido verde by Nilo CruzWhen: 8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays until May 4Where: Teatro Ocho, 2101 SW Eighth St., MiamiTickets: $35, discounts for seniors, students and groupsInfo: 305-541-4841 or www.teatro8.comNormally, a bullet penetrates its target in a matter of seconds, but the trajectory of the shots that ended the life of Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca have traveled for decades.
Seventy-two years after his murder by nationalist militia at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the remains of Lorca, one of Spain's most iconic artists, have never been recovered.
Through the prism of several distinct personalities -- five of them Lorca -- we witness the poet's impassioned life and brutal murder in Nilo Cruz's theatrical tour de force, Lorca con un vestido verde. This Spanish-language version of Lorca in a Green Dress is making its South Florida debut in Little Havana's Teatro 8.
The play opens in an antechamber, where a bewildered, blood-soaked Lorca (brilliantly portrayed by Dexter Cápiro) looks around frantically and announces: ''I am Federico García Lorca. I am a poet.'' Three figures (Paulina Gálvez, Tomás Doval, Ariel Texidó) step forward and also identify themselves as Lorca. They are gatekeeper-actors in the ''Lorca Room,'' a purgatorial space where dreams, memories and the last few minutes of the poet's life are repeatedly re-enacted to help him accept his sudden death.
The actors move to their places. Texidó effortlessly morphs from Lorca in a green dress to a sadistic general who barks, ''Communist faggot!'' at Doval's panicked Lorca in a white suit. Paulina Gálvez stomps out a vicious flamenco that rattles the stage like a spray of bullets, while Cápiro's bloodied Lorca looks on in disbelief.
In a region with a sizable talent pool, it's thrilling to watch actors who feel this indispensable to their roles. Director Rolando Moreno has pulled together an outstanding cast -- with the added challenge that the four actors must interpret eight characters. Texidó and Gálvez are particularly adept in this capacity. Doval is charming as the young, impeccably dressed Lorca. Cápiro possesses tremendous skill and stamina, which allow him to abundantly fill the emotional cracks and crevices of this tragic figure.
These characters are performed in such a nuanced and unflinching manner they stretch beyond ''sympathetic.'' They are astonishing. What's even more astonishing is the original version, written in English and first performed in 2003 (the same year Cruz won a Pulitzer for Ana in the Tropics) has never been produced in South Florida.
It's an incredible opportunity for audiences to be wowed.
