Playwright: Danny Bernardo. At: Bailiwick Chicago Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-327-5252; www.stage773.com; $35. Runs through: Aug. 2
At the start of the play, Roberto Reyes and his children have returned to Chicago from the Philippines after the funeral of his wifeall except gay son Mikey, who remained stateside, trawling for companionship via Smartphone apps, his search eventually leading to a match-up with Asian Studies scholar Tim. The widower, in the meantime, looks to make a few changes in the apartment he shared with his late spouse, only to find himself quickly embroiled in a May-December affair with his decorator. Oh, and while overseas, older son Roberto Jr."Jun" (rhymes with "loon") to his siblingshas fallen in love with a Filipino girl, whom he wants to bring to the U.S., in defiance of his sister Mari's suspicions. When the mysterious woman arrives, everything is suddenly thrown into turmoil.
"Mahal," we are told, is a Tagalog word that can mean both "love" and "expensive" (as we might speak of something precious being "dear"). The tensions within the Reyes clan may begin in the familiar universe of romantic comedy, but quickly expand to encompass differing opinions regarding what is most precious to those with individual personalities shaped by the cultural dissonance characteristic of assimilated immigrants. More immediate is the question of whether any of them can hope to achieve a trusting relationship while still crippled by secrets and sabi-sabi (once defined as "things that everybody knows, but nobody talks about").
The divisions in Danny Bernardo's cliché-free play are not only racial (two of the characters are anglo) and generational (Roberto's paramour is discovered to have been Mikey's high school classmate), but linguistic as well (white-boy Tim, ironically, is fluent in Tagalog, and thus privy to family discussions utterly unintelligible to its youngest member). Ultimately, however, the argument focuses on the idea of taking responsibility for one's past actions, and when the perpetrator of the deed refuses to face the consequences, who, then, pays the price?
Playwright Bernardo's close connection to his material makes for a more complex journey to reconciliation than typically encountered in plays of this genre. Director Erica Weiss forges smooth transitions to integrate dialogue ranging in tone from Norman Lear (exacerbated by Stephen H. Carmody's pop-up book scenic design) to Arthur Miller. Finally, Joseph Anthony Foronda conjures sympathy for the arguably undeserving Roberto Sr. to anchor an actors' ensemble delivering articulate portrayals devoid of stereotype, rendering this a fable of redemption stretching beyond its superficial ethnic boundaries.