Have issues with your mother? Work it out with a substitute. Role-playing isn't just for the bedroom in Argentinean playwright and cartoonist Diana Raznovich's MaTRIX, Inc. The title refers to a corporation that soothes the souls of its clients by employing improvisatory actors.
The play is as much about aesthetic critique, in the tradition of Hamlet's advice to the players, as it is, in Raznovich's words, an exploration of the "traditional forces and laws of the mother role." Gloria (Pietro Gonzalez), who has rented Substitute Mother (Roberto Cambeiro) as a 30th-birthday present to herself, can't resist giving notes. Substitute Mother resents criticism from a layperson, citing her résumé, although she must admit she goofed with her entry (Gloria had not ordered the diva, elephant-riding, world-traveler mother, but the cold and distant one). Over the course of the day, Substitute Mother creates a domineering Neapolitan mother, a guilt-inducing Yiddishe mama, and others. Rounding out the cast, Berioska Ipinza plays a MaTRIX employee, a cross between cruise coordinator and narrator.
MaTRIX, Inc. takes worthwhile stylistic risks. Both Substitute Mother and Gloria are played by men. Gonzalez's odd looks enhance the comedy—his hairy legs poking out of a shift are absurd, his bug eyes and bald head enhance the impression of Gloria as a needy baby. The text, translated by Victoria Martinez, alternately suffers and benefits from the strong accents of Gonzalez and Ipinza.
Director Martin Balmaceda milks humor out of mime that illustrates the narration. Set and costume designer Holly Ko has made the small Arthur Seelen Theatre in the Drama Book Shop interesting with two upstage light pillars that click on and off; her chic costumes are all in black trimmed with fuchsia. Tamara Roberts' sound and music are apt and often funny.
Although the conceit wears thin, MaTRIX, Inc. is theatrically bizarre—in a good way.
Presented by LaMicro Theater
at the Arthur Seelen Theater at the Drama Book Shop, 250 W. 40th St., NYC.
Nov. 10–20. Thu.–Sun., 8 p.m.
(212) 591-1815.