Nestled in the heart of the SOFA District (South First Street Area), San Jose Stage Company opened its 44th season last weekend with the Bay Area premiere of Bess Wohl’s “Barcelona.” The physical layout of The Stage features a three-quarter thrust style stage with an occupancy of 200. This means that the theater’s seating wraps around the stage on three sides with only a backdrop blocking the backstage. This arrangement positions the audience in close proximity for maximum intimacy. The actors are only a few steps away.
Director Randall King, a founding member of the company and current artistic director, makes great use of this intimate setting through his artful staging of a play that pulls you into the inner lives of two flawed and interesting characters. King took the stage for a brief moment Saturday night to introduce the play. Trim and dressed in all black with his mid-length gray hair slicked back, he was every bit the image of a veteran artist. Together with his wife and longtime Executive Director Cathleen King, this power couple has made San Jose Stage Company a creative force for contemporary theater. They received the Cornerstone of the Arts Award from the city of San Jose in 2018, and with this new play they continue a legacy of smart, edgy theater.
“Barcelona” stars Johnny Moreno and Adria Swan, and their chemistry creates a dynamic and combustible cocktail of energies that is both fun and devastating to watch. Moreno, associate artistic director of The Stage, plays Manuel, a middle-aged Spaniard who lives in Madrid but is visiting Barcelona, where he keeps an apartment. Moreno perfectly embodies the spirit of this character. Every gesture is a precise reflection of a Spanish businessman, every intonation suffused with a European arrogance and passion that simultaneously repels and attracts. He has brought an American tourist back to the apartment ostensibly for a fiery night of sex, but things become much more complex than carnal desire. Moreno displays incredible poise and a command of his artistic powers as he transforms from a polished but cliched Latin lover into someone with great emotional depth.
Adria Swan is an absolute vision as Irene, a woman on a bachelorette tour in Spain, who has wandered off from her group of friends to explore a night with a dashingly handsome Spaniard. Wearing a garish but sexy evening gown and one high heel, she enters the scene with full abandon, only to pull back a moment later declaring that “she doesn’t normally do this kind of thing.” Swan plays this 35-year-old woman from Colorado, who leads a sheltered life and is proud of her pioneer heritage, with equal parts charm and humor. Her typically American observations about Barcelona deepen as the night proceeds and she begins to reflect on herself. At one point she utters a devastating observation about being a tourist in her own life. To go from drunk and vapid to utterly sober and self-reflective is an achievement of acting that Swan manages artfully. She is a joy to watch on stage.
Together, this duo creates compelling and cutting-edge theater. It is a 90-minute, one-act show that has zero moments of dullness. It is brilliant from beginning to end, and this star-caliber, high-quality performance is suitably complemented by one of the best set designs I have ever seen. The digital backdrop features a video installation designed by Erik Scanlon that slowly transforms over the course of the play. It depicts Barcelona at night, with a quarter moon over the Sagrada Familia, an iconic architectural feature of the city, and the moon slowly almost imperceptibly sets as the night stretches into morning. The city lights and the starry firmament twinkle in a continuum of bedazzlement that creates a sense of awe and enhances the setting inside the room. Robert Pickering’s scenic design is a perfectly “cute” Spanish apartment with stacks of moving boxes creating a sense of someone being caught in the process of moving in or out.
Every element of artistic design serves the purpose of communicating the deep messages of Bess Wohl’s play. Having recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play with “Liberation,” this play originally written in 2009 and produced in 2012 showcases her talent and depth as a playwright. “Barcelona” is a comparative study of cultures, post 9/11; it is a personal and political exploration of two people from different backgrounds who come together for one night that leads to profound self-discovery. The Stage’s production of this play has everything that I love most about theater, and it should be at the top of every Bay Area theater-lover’s list for must-see drama this fall. “Barcelona” runs through Oct. 18 in San Jose. Go to thestage.org for tickets and information.
San Jose Stage Company (The Stage) presents the Bay Area Premiere of Bess Wohl’s “Barcelona.” Featuring Adria Swan as Irene. (Courtesy Dave Lepori)