All Things Hugo
- Written by Jose Sueiro
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‘The 22+ Weddings of Hugo’ is another in a long series of victories for GALA Theatre. Under the leadership of playwright Gustavo Ott, the theatre starts the season with an endearing comedy that serves to highlight the performance of one of GALA Theatre’s most indelible and prolific lead actors, Carlos Castillo.
The play, in Spanish with subtitles, deals broadly with the themes of compassion, justice and the immigrant struggle. It is presumably taken from a real life story, but the breadth and structure of the writing makes it feel more like a Cortazar-esque parody, more fantasy than fact.
Directed by Jose Zayas, another GALA stalwart, it weaves in and out of storylines and time periods describing the life of a simple postal worker who manages to marry 18, err…, 19 or is it over 22+ times. His purpose is to save lives and give his partners, male-or-female a new and (supposedly) better life. All this leads to great fun and interesting, if confusing, sub-plots.
Nevertheless, what is most attractive about this whacky comedy is the performance of Mr. Castillo. He is a force of nature on stage, by far the finest, most versatile Spanish language actor in the region. His comedy is a tour de force, filled with nervous energy and sublime timing. He is at times flustered, distraught, impish or anguished. He always manages to keep the audience focused on his antics and sets up his cast for more mischief.
Carlos has dedicated his performances to the late, great Hugo Medrano who was the Artistic Director of the theatre for over 40 years, a fitting gesture to the theatre’s founder who cast him in so many memorable roles.
The new artistic team at GALA does not lack for talent. It is a creative group adept at producing top quality spectacles. The evening we attended there were many of the same patrons as on other occasions at the theatre. One has to wonder what consideration, if any, is there on developing new audiences and expanding the footprint of this quality cultural organization. There is a large swath of this community that still does not know about GALA and do not attend their functions.
