Elena Maria Garcia delivers a tsunami of comedy in Cuban Chicken Soup: When There’s No More Café from Zoetic Stage at the Arsht Center (Photos by Morgan Sophia )
By Raquel V. Reyes
Cuban Chicken Soup: When There’s No More Café is a ‘Grand Slam with yuca’ thanks to the sparkling performance of Elena Maria Garcia.
The one-woman play at Zoetic Stage is a sequel to 2016’s ¡Fuacata! Or a Latina’s Guide to Surviving the Universe written by the same duo, Elena Maria Garcia and director Stuart Meltzer. The play runs a little over ninety minutes but feels more like a thirty-minute sitcom. Garcia’s charm, chops, and comedic timing are on full display in this delightful one-act production.
The world premiere opens with Garcia, in character as Elena, now ten years older than in ¡Fuacata!, bursting through a turquoise door onto a simple yet elegant Deco set designed by Natasha Hernandez.
The energy continues with a boisterous and profane quip, ‘La vida le gusta joder.’ that breaks the fourth wall. The life messes with you theme is offered to the audience like a tray of bocaditos, and from that point on Garica has the viewer eating out of her hands. She is masterful, and despite the foreshadowing that a dinner date at a swanky South Beach restaurant will end badly, we are still surprised when the husband’s disembodied voice demands a divorce.
Fans of ¡Fuacata! will recall and enjoy the return of Elena’s pantomimed car schtick. Sound Designer Matt Corey’s bings, pings, and other effects work in well-rehearsed synchronicity as she repeatedly battles with a glitchy seatbelt. Rebecca Montero’s lighting design is economical but effective. She shifts the colors of the set’s four round windows to denote scene and mood changes.
Meltzer and Garica have filled the script with details that land laughs with South Floridiana, like ‘python fritter nuggets,’ ‘Miss Florida Manatee,’ and a Dolphin Mall reference. Belly laughs are a constant but spike when Garcia embodies the characters of senatorial candidate Shiva-Shiva Goldberg and hairstylist Fausto.
Cuban Chicken Soup feels part improv, part stand-up, and part theater due to Garica’s gift at audience engagement. She speaks directly to her spectators and even ventures into the seats at one point in the play. Her strengths and talents make up for the one weak point in the storytelling. The husband’s reason for the divorce is not explored, although keen listeners might be able to infer a motivation. The plot oversight might have been due to a missed line or two, but if Garica did forget a few lines it was hard to tell. Her opening night performance was dynamic and near-flawless.
Cuban Chicken Soup: When There’s No More Café is the perfect girl’s night out—especially for friends facing the bumps and hurdles of midlife. It will also make a great Mother’s Day gift for moms who can laugh at life’s ups and downs.
Cuban Chicken Soup: When There’s No More Café runs through May 19 from Zoetic Stage at the Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd. Miami. Tickets call (305) 949-6722
Raquel V. Reyes is the author of the award-winning Caribbean Kitchen Mystery series. Her latest novel is Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal. Find her across social media as @LatinaSleuths and at www.LatinaSleuths.com
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