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`Romance' author demonstrates his love of language once again

"The Romance of Magno Rubio," a rather beguiling contemporary play now at the Victory Gardens, has an all-Filipino cast of characters, is performed entirely by a group of actors with Filipino roots, and deals with the travails of lovelorn migrant workers in the California of the 1930s.

A language-driven piece, this is a small but sweet play about the beauty of the native Filipino speech patterns, the agony of cultural oppression and the complex nature of the Filipino identity in a hostile new world. It feels intensely authentic.

So one would logically assume, it was written by a Filipino or Filipino-American playwright.

Actually, it was penned by a white guy.

That's if you can call Lonnie Carter a white guy in the usual sense. Heck, when this fellow wrote "The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy," a celebration of black language, it was widely assumed that he must be an African-American. As a general rule, one wouldn't make a big issue of a playwright's ethnicity. But you cannot avoid it in this case. For better or worse (and good arguments persist on both sides), very culturally specific plays such as "Magno Rubio" are almost always the creative province of the group depicted in the theater. It's an unwritten but pervasive rule in the politically correct realm of the American non-profit arts world.

But Carter -- whose intense poetic and theatrical use of language throbs in a weird polycultural universe -- truly is a unique case. Granted, "Magno Rubio" has its roots in a short story by the Filipino author Carlos Bulosan. But throughout his career, Carter has been willing to barrel his way into the life of an ethnic group falling outside his own experience.

I cannot think of another white playwright who would dare to follow this path. Nor can I think of one who would execute its complex contours so well. Carter's like the Forrest Gump of the ethnic landscape, his language morphing to fit both the historical and geographic moment -- Tagalog and all -- and the theatrical heart of the teller.

Here, the titular Magno Rubio is a young migrant worker of short stature (4 feet 6 inches or so) who falls in love at a distance with a tall, financially needy woman from Arkansas -- seen only in silhouette form and vocalized by one of the other male workers in the story.

Like a Filipino version of Edmond Rostand's Christian, little Magno hires one of his fellow toilers -- the educated Nick -- to pen passionate letters to a woman we suspect from the start will turn out to be a no-good gold digger. Under the direction of Loy Arcenas (who also contributed to the text), a mainly local cast of actors creates an intense and appealing 90 minutes with a palpable heart -- Rodney To is very appealing in the title role and deftly balanced by the cooler Joseph Anthony Foronda as Nick.

This isn't a narrative that carries a lot of suspense, because we know Magno is headed for heartache from Day One. Nor is expansive ideology or epic theatricalism on display. Rather, this is a show for people who like to hear poetry married to social consciousness.

By the end of the night, Carter has convinced us that we all speak strangely and we all think pretty much the same.


"The Romance of Magno Rubio"

When: Through July 11

Where: Victory Gardens Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.

Running time: 90 minutes

Tickets: $30-$35 at 773-871-3000

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