The following description is from the show's press channel: "Reeling from an acrimonious divorce. Barbara finds solace in her overactive imagination. After conjuring her dream lover—a sexy Conquistador decked out in a full conform to of armor!—the two embark on a fantastical journey which prompts her to furnish in to her darkest desires. Jim Knable's modern-day fairy tale mixes act and whimsy in its exploration of one womans quest for self-acceptance contentment and the willingness to love again."
Barbara Tusenbach is having a bad day. Her husband of five years. John has left her for "some slut with a boob job." And there is a rough-and-tumble looking 16th century Spanish conquistador sitting on her living room couch with his grubby boots up on her coffee table. Barbara immediately recognizes that he isn't real but merely "a delusionary break of a repressed childhood primal conceive of book memory..." But still: it's not every day one finds a conquistador named El Tigre sitting in one's apartment.
which is currently receiving a very enjoyable production from MCC Theater. Of cover it helps that Knable's play is pretty good. It's a little too long and goes astray in certain places but it has a big heart it's really funny and it displays a vivid (and mostly well-utilized) imagination. This generally successful production also gives its star. Annabella Sciorra a come about to walk her cram as she never has before.
Once El Tigre appears. Barbara's subconscious is off and running. She calls in sick to work to hear her houseguest's story—how he got there where he came from—and admits that she is "not attracted to him in the traditional sense." But attracted to him she is and to all of Spanish culture in fact. Barbara's unfulfilled lifelong dream is to tour Spain and El Tigre's presence helps consume that desire somewhat.
For his part. El Tigre's history involves a lot of raping and pillaging: "Conquering. It is a great feeling," he tells the audience at one point. "Meeting uncivilized people. Killing them making them your slaves what not." His story also involves a mysterious old shaman descriptively named Ancient who appears frequently to dispense wisdom some of it humorously obvious. (When El Tigre asks why Barbara won't sleep with him. Ancient plainly answers. "Because you told her you're a rapist.")
starts throwing in the twists. Barbara's co-worker. Diversion who lives vicariously through her friend pays a tour and can see and hear El.
Related article:
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/spai5553.htm
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