underneathmybed

At first, the Jimenez family of Newton, Mass., seems relatively normal. Father Esteban may raise his voice too often about the horrors committed by the military government in their native Argentina. Mother Lizbel is a trifle compulsive when it comes to table settings and the proper dinner-party etiquette. Younger sisters Josefina and Daisy squabble over having to share a room, while elder sibling Paola is nervous about getting into Harvard and obsesses over the broken front-door lock. Aunt Toti is hiding a stray cat under the sink. Just your average, somewhat dysfunctional clan, the kind often seen in family plays. But in Florencia Lozano's fascinatingly bizarre work “underneathmybed,” there are demons and ghosts lurking not just under the bed but in all corners of Raul Abrego's deceptively simple set.

Set in 1982, the play is told from Daisy's point of view. The impressionable adolescent is haunted by her father's constant rants about the atrocities committed by the junta that has displaced them. These fears manifest themselves as words written across the moon, seen on an overhead TV monitor, and in the form of a tortured girl whose moans can be heard from under the floorboards and behind the walls. Daisy frantically attempts to process it all— images of nightmarish chaos in Argentina, pop songs, and middle school—as she yearns to know what it is to be a woman. Meanwhile, her parents struggle to deal with their legacy of pain. Esteban wants to keep it alive, while Lizbel covers it over with talk of car pools, ballet classes, and other typical North American family activities.

Lozano, best known as an actor on the TV soap “One Life to Live,” occasionally goes over the top by allowing the confrontational scenes to go on a tad too long and descend into shouting matches. But she skillfully balances the absurdist imagery with the more realistic depiction of the characters. This reality-fantasy dichotomy is best handled in a wonderfully comic dinner scene, in which two pompous guests—Paola's self-important academic adviser and his alcoholic wife—don't know what to make of their hosts' “Alice in Wonderland” house.

Director Pedro Pascal and his crackerjack cast create a believable world where the surrealistic coexists with the everyday. The actors are so clear in their intentions that even when much of the dialogue is in Spanish, we are still able to understand what the characters are saying. Vanessa Aspillaga gives a towering performance as the dazed and confused Daisy. The role could easily have drowned in an ocean of tears and self-pity, but Aspillaga gives her such a quirky edge that she is wildly funny as well as heartbreakingly moving. Ed Trucco and Paula Pizzi lend force and bite to the parents. Audrey Esparza finds the lonely ache behind fiery teenage Josefina's angry front. Vivia Font makes a lovely Paola, Marina Pulido is haunting as the ghostly girl, Maria Cellario is a tender Aunt Toti, and Matthew Dellapina makes the most of the small role of Josefina's boyfriend, who doubles as a narrator. Charles Goforth and Yetta Gottesman are a riot as the flummoxed guests.

Want to see a gripping and funny play from a new author? Look no further than “underneathmybed.”



Presented by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in association with Piece by Piece Productions
at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 227 Waverly Place, NYC. Sept. 10–Oct. 10. Mon., Wed.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (No performance Mon., Sept. 13.)
(212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com. Casting by Judy Bowman Casting.