The Geffen takes a pratfall with The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona, the Jose Rivera play now in a world premiere production. Directed by Jo Bonney, the play owes its creation to a magazine article Rivera read ten years ago dealing with a Minneapolis company “whose service was to connect people who want to send a message to the other side. I instantly knew it was a play, but I didn’t have characters or a story for some time,” he explained in a program note. “Unfortunately, I had two deaths in the family a couple of years ago, and that helped crystallize all the things I was thinking about in terms of mortality and speculating on what death would feel like. So the personal event married this concept, and suddenly there was a play.” That’s all well and good: grief-stricken people trying to reach dead loved ones is an act we’re all familiar with, as evidenced by the large amounts of money spent on psychics, séances, and even hypnotists. Unfortunately, there is no scientific proof that anyone ever managed to make a connection to the other world, but that didn’t stop Rivera from taking a shot at it with his latest play, which he calls “mad realism.” Problem is, Nikki Corona isn’t mad enough to make an audience willingly suspend disbelief in a story that grinds on for two long acts, one of which is set in the hereafter, yet still seems earthbound. In the opening scene we meet Abril (Onahoua Rodriguez), who is trying to reach her twin sister Nikki with a phone call just before she jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. Nikki (also played by Rodriguez), who’s had issues with her, ignores her call…and pays the price when she learns that Abril has killed herself. Overcome with guilt and self-loathing, she goes to the office of A Better Orpheus and meets Maren (Sara Koviak) to investigate whether the company can truly deliver a message of apology to her dead sister. Maren, portrayed as anything but sleazy and greedy by the skillful actress, hooks her up with the hunky but dissolute Orlando (the excellent Ricardo Chavira), who is dying in hospital of cancer. The sexual banter and teasing between them is the best part of Rivera’s play, though it is spoiled by the intrusion of Orlando’s sister Noelle (Zilah Mendoza), an officious bitch who has nothing but contempt for him. In act two, Nikki gets lost and the play’s focus shifts to Orpheus (pardon me, Orlando) in the land of the dead, searching for Abril with the help of a loony Southern gal, Lisandra (Koviak again), whose life as an anarchist was cut short when she ate a can of tainted peaches. Orlando encounters several other dead relatives of his (mostly played by the nimble Juan Francisco Villa), in one unfunny scene after another, before finally catching up with Abril and delivering the untranslatable secret of the play’s title. By then, my interest in the message had been replaced by an urgent wish for the play to end.
