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review In the Bronx, a boy named Gustavito looks desperately for love and affection. His father beats him, his half-brother bullies him, and his mother is missing. With no man to admire and new feelings he can't understand, Gustavito goes to church to find peace. A priest befriends him, but the solace takes a turn: Gustavito is falling in love, and the priest loves him back. That's one of five stories anchoring Edwin Sanchez's "Clean", a remarkable drama making its west coast premiere at the Celebration Theatre. Dealing with forbidden love in all its passion and glory, Sanchez examines the saga of one Nuyorican clan raging against its desires. Patriarch Kiko (Ernesto Miyares) has chosen all his wives from one family; the eldest sister bore him Junior (Michael Gabriel Goodfriend), the middle sister bore him Gustavito (Marcos Padilla), and now he calls the boys' aunt his wife. He thinks nothing of ramming his son's head into a concrete post, or sexually humiliating his family in public. And as Gustavito develops a crush on his priest (Ken Roht), a barrio drag queen named Norry (Joshua Wolf Coleman) waltzes into the family tailor shop and asks his aunt (Michelle Bonilla) to make him a custom wedding dress. Sanchez balances all this nicely, with a combination of witty humor and jarring violence. Director Jon Lawrence Rivera uses only one set element, an oblong ramp which suggests a bed, church pew, dock, fire escape and funeral home as the story progresses. It's a brilliant move that keeps the focus on the actors, and on the expertly choreographed stage violence necessary to the play. "Clean" will offend people. Some theatergoers will find it anti-Catholic. Some will find it sick. But they will think long into the night about what they saw. Sanchez seems to suggest that "sin" is a theological security blanket, a comforting dose of self-hatred embraced by people who want to demean their desires. The play seems to say that in love, there are no sins. Since one of "Clean"'s plot lines involves a 26-year-old priest's passion for an 11-year-old boy, some people are gonna be pissed. And you know what? They're right. And so is Sanchez. Because "Clean" is a rare, intelligent play that insists the noble and the fallen are one and the same. Instead of expurgating sin, the characters in "Clean" expurgate love. And whether you're queer or straight as a line, that's the biggest tragedy of all. |