Theater Review: "Espejos: Clean" at Hartford Stage

The first production of the new year for Hartford Stage is “Espejos: Clean,” (which translates to “Mirrors: Clean”) a new adventure for the theater. During this bilingual performance, audiences journey with two different women, each working to find her way through the thorniness of her past, and attempting to find connection.

The play was written by Christine Quintana with the Spanish translation and adaptation by Paula Zelaya Cervantes. Director Melissa Crespo makes wonderful use of the beautiful scenic design by Mariana Sanchez that reflects a ritzy Cancun resort.

In the play, the lives of the two women with vastly different life experiences intersect at a destination wedding in Cancun. Adriana has left her home in Chtuman, Mexico and works as the manager of the housekeeping staff at a resort. Sarah, from Vancouver, is the sister of the bride and the self-acknowledged family screw up.

A chance encounter during a torrential downpour (effectively portrayed with lighting) leads each woman to confront her own personal storm and to consider the possibility that although she is isolated, she may not be as alone as she believes.

This is the first time that Hartford Stage has presented a play told entirely in English and Spanish. The playwright writes in detail about the difficulty of translation, but I found that aspect of the performance relatively well done.

The Artistic and Managing Directors, Melia Bensussen and Cynthia Rider, acknowledge that “just as the characters in this play do not speak each other’s language, each of you may not be fluent in the languages you’ll hear from our stage in this performance.”

The two invite patrons to “embrace the many forms of communication that occur within the magic of a theater: in addition to the language — heard and projected — there is music, there are images, there are actors communicating with you through their movement and their expression, along with their voices.”

“We hope that this production helps you appreciate how the variety of experience (and of language) that surrounds us can help us each take a leap of trust in each other and in our stories — in whatever language we may speak.”

I did my best to make use of all of these theatrical cues, which include captioning posted above the stage, English for the Spanish lines and Spanish for the English dialogue. The problem was that if I was reading along, I missed the finer points of the acting and if I paid strict attention to the performances, I could not follow the often rapid-fire Spanish monologues. At a few points, the captioning froze, so that didn’t help and I realized too late that some of the scenes were intended to be fantasies.

I so wanted to appreciate the concept but it proved to be overwhelming at times, despite the fact that I understand quite a bit of Spanish. It had to be difficult for more than a few members of the audience, although we noticed that the seats on the side of the stage were purposely left empty because they would not allow a good view of the captions.

Costume design by Lux Haac met the needs of the characters, but seemed like there could have been more changes, at least for the character of Sarah.

Sound design by Daniela Hart and Uptownworks was unobtrusive and I felt like I missed a lot of the beautiful background projections designed by Lisa Renkel because I was trying so hard to keep up with the subtitles.

“Espejos: Clean” received a rolling world premiere production in March 2022 between South Coast Repertory Theatre (Costa Mesa, CA, USA) and Neworld Theatre (Vancouver, BC, Canada).

Kate Abbruzzese makes her Hartford Stage debut as the Canadian character of Sarah and does well. The actress earned a BA from Vassar College and her MFA at NYU in Graduate Acting.

Emma Ramos also makes her Hartford Stage debut and is especially effective in the role of the emotionally damaged Adrianna. She was a staff writer for Nickelodeon’s reboot of “Dora the Explorer.”

"Espejos: Clean" runs approximately 1 hour 45 minutes with one 15-minute intermission and continues at Hartford Stage through Feb. 3.

Nancy Sasso Janis, writing theatre reviews since 2012 as a way to support local venues, posts well over 100 reviews each year. In 2016, her membership in the Connecticut Critics Circle began and her contributions of theatrical reviews, previews, and audition notices are posted not only in the Naugatuck Patch but also on the Patch sites closest to the venue. She recently became a contributor to the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper. Her weekly column and theatre reviews appear in the Thursday Weekend section of the paper.

Follow the reviewer on her Facebook pages Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer and Connecticut Theatre Previews and on Twitter @nancysjanis417 Check out the NEW CCC Facebook page.