There’s nothing like being in a car over a long distance for a long period time with a parent you haven’t seen in years.
26 Miles currently playing at Main Street Theater, written by Pulitzer Prize winning Quiara Alegria Hudes, captures the spontaneous road trip initiated by a headstrong Cubana mother, Beatriz (Rosarito Rodríguez-González), who picks her daughter, Olivia (Joy Germany), up from her father’s home and never quite drops her off anywhere.
A casual kidnapping which raises no alarms at home points to a domestic situation that may no longer be beneficial for Olivia.
As they travel throughout the country — deciding on Yellowstone National Park — Beatriz spends the most uninterrupted time she’s spent with her daughter since breaking up with Olivia’s white Jewish father, Aaron (Dwight Clark). No longer with her father, Olivia finally spends time with her “Cuban” side, opening the floodgates to a part of her heritage she never knew.
In a useful recurring appearance of indigenous ancestors who appear throughout in moments of revelation as a show of guidance and supernatural omnipresence, Olivia’s search for cultural understanding and Beatriz’s desire to pass on her own history is explicitly expressed.
Beatriz is an immigrant who started a relationship with Aaron while she was undocumented. When they broke up, Beatriz hit rock bottom, but it wasn’t all bad since she met her conspiracy-theory loving husband, Manuel (Anthony Hernandez).
Amelia Rico’s direction is most clear in moments that suggest a cultural passing on of sorts. It’s clear that the themes of reclaiming ancestry and embracing cultural roots resonate profoundly. While the inclusion of the indigeneity positively stands out, its integration into the production could have been better addressed through clearer transitions between the realistic and symbolic in the world.
More stylized transitions would have been helpful throughout the play. The play suggests elements of a spiritual dimension, flashbacks, and fantastical conversations between Olivia and Beatriz that aren’t signaled visually through consistent design choices.
Though it becomes obvious during the course of the conversation how a scene is intended, it would be helpful to immediately know when Olivia and Beatriz are connecting with each other through their more heightened dialogue vs. when they are in more realistic moments.
This production doesn’t get bogged down by a static performance of two people talking behind the wheel. Despite the car scenes being relegated to the downstage and the motel scenes only taking place in one corner of the stage, some energy enters the script through the variety of stops they make along the way for food, lodging and connection.
What is an ’80s road trip if there aren’t mentions of quarters and charmingly archaic payphones?
It’s the endless unanswered phone calls to Olivia’s father in Pennsylvania that confound until it becomes clear where Olivia’s future lies. It’s the phone calls between Beatriz and Manuel that paint a fuller reason as to why Beatriz really initiates the road trip.
Rodríguez-González’s portrayal of Beatriz radiates with Cubanidad. Shame never comes from her background, and it’s her brazen confidence in her culture that inevitably starts to rub off on Olivia. Rodríguez-González contrasts with Germany’s more introspective performance. Beatriz’s vivacity enables Olivia to express the questions and disappointments that usually go unexpressed.
The show finds its highest points when Beatriz passionately speaks about her past and Olivia reveals her sense of isolation and echoes feelings of confusion about who she is. When they finally are able to disclose the intimate details of their lives and share in each other’s struggles, it feels like a culmination of all the cultural learning and cultural appreciation that both Beatriz has had to process as an immigrant and what Olivia has had to learn as a daughter of an immigrant.
26 Miles shows the importance of how cultural understanding can help in making sense of the self while offering a sincere story of a mother’s desire to connect with her child. This 90-minute production contains the tender moments of most standard mother-daughter stories down to the inevitable awkward conversation about the birds and the bees.
Performances continue through March 3 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays at Main Street Theater – Rice Village, 2540 Times Boulevard. For more information, call 713-524-6706 or visit mainstreettheater.com. $35-$59.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
