Poor Mitchell. He sits in an upholstered chair in Albuquerque, N.M., looking a bit waxy and slightly dead. And his stiff (but not too stiff) body will take the brunt of many of the gags in Leonard Madrid’s “Cebollas,” about three sisters on an absurd if vital mission.
The dramatic comedy’s warm and emotionally attuned ensemble serves its comedic beats about sisters and Latino families well. Jamie Ann Romero plays Yolie, the woman who’d been having an affair with the inconveniently deceased (and married) Mitch. Zuleyma Guervara and Xochitl Romero portray her older sisters, Tere and Celia.
More bewildered than bereaved, Yolie has called Celia, a nurse, for help. Did we mention that Yolie is very, tilt-herself-back-to-feel-for-a-seat pregnant? That’s why Celia answers Yolie’s phone call with such attentive speed. Oldest sister Tere is called shortly after Celia, groceries in hand to help — with a birth she assumed, not a death. Neither knew about Mitch and their sis.
Tere’s arrival makes clear the rules of their birth order. Tere is the quick-to-judge oldest. Yolie is the often irresponsible youngest. Middle sis Celia acts as negotiator, interpreter and conciliator between the two. Over the course of the play, their understanding of each other’s place in the family will deepen, thanks in no small measure to Celia, whose practical wisdom and kindness Xochitl Romero expresses with charm.
Yolie has the daffy and desperate idea of transporting Mitch’s body to his Denver home. That way his wife won’t have to learn of her husband’s death and philandering at the same moment, she reasons. After bickering, the three agree to use Tere’s car for the trip.
With sibling banter and a great deal of pratfall comedy, the trio — er, quartet — hit the road. There will be stops for gas, for slot machines and for rehashing a lifetime of disputes and misunderstandings. There also will be wonderful inside jokes and dancing. These are sisters, after all.
The dead-guy-on-the-move is a conceit that the playwright himself acknowledges as silly. (“This is kind of fun,” says Yolie at a restaurant stop. “What, this ‘Weekend at Bernadette’s’ thing we got going on?” Tere tosses back.) Indeed, “Cebollas” often swings between two genres: the sitcom and the family melodrama. That makes it at times funny and familiar but also can make it seem deceptively slight.
The Denver Center’s Singleton Theatre might seem like tight quarters for a road trip, but scenic designer Raul Abrego sends our protagonist off in a car that gently turns with the curves of the highway. Video projections (by Alex Basco Koch and John Erickson) keep them — and us — moving, pulling into rest stops and moving past landscapes and towns, an Indian reservation casino, and that different temple of consumption, Ikea.
The joke of a very pregnant body dealing with a very dead one provides “Cebollas” many opportunities for physical comedy. Under the direction of Jerry Ruiz (who nurtured the play during the Denver Center’s 2021 Colorado New Play Summit), the cast rightly milks them. Pondering a plan, Yolie sits on Mitch’s lap and rests his cold, dead hands on her big belly. In a gesture that mixes decency with distaste, Tere makes Mitch’s corpse a bit more presentable by zipping his jeans. Outside Mitch’s upscale Denver home, the three sisters must figure out ways to appear natural. Their failures are fodder for the audience’s outright guffaws.
Still, the show is at its most revelatory when it veers from genre to disclose a family secret, one that Yolie’s not been privy to but has a great deal to do with how she and Tere interact. We aren’t surprised that the secret centers on their parents, but no spoilers here. Let’s just say that “Cebollas” — Spanish for onion — stays true to its meaning. Madrid and his cast peel back the layers on the mysteries and effects of a beloved father and distant mother, making these sisters eyes sting and tear, but also adding flavor to their lives.
Lisa Kennedy is a Denver freelance writer who specializes in film and theater.
IF YOU GO
“Cebollas”: Written by Leonard Madrid. Directed by Jerry Ruiz. Featuring Zuleyma Guevara, Jamie Ann Romero and Xochitl Romero. At the Singleton Theatre in the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. Through March 17. For tickets and info: denvercenter.org or 303-893-4100
