Reviews of World Premiere of Blood and Water
Aux Dog Theatre Nob Hill, September 12, 2019
Talkin’ Broadway
Review by Dean Yannias
At first glance, Blood and Water, a new play by Albuquerque playwright Andy Mayo, looks like a Sam Shepard knock-off. It's even advertised as such on the Aux Dog Theatre website: "In the rock 'n roll style of Sam Shepard ..." If you're not a Sam Shepard fan, don't let that put you off. I enjoyed this play more than I ever enjoyed any Sam Shepard play that I have seen.
What might remind you of Shepard are a couple of the characters and the setting: Two asshole brothers who act very badly toward each other, both of whom hated their asshole old man; and the setting in the New Mexico desert. (Shepard lived for several years, off and on, in New Mexico.) In other respects, it's an original piece of work, well-plotted and, with only a few small exceptions, written with good, realistic dialogue.
You don't have to be from the Southwest to appreciate this play, but there is one plot point that might need explaining to those not familiar with the area: the importance of water and water rights in the desert. People in most of the country don't have to worry about where their water is coming from—it's not going to run out. But it's a different story in dry landscapes. The topic of water rights is a big deal in this part of the country and often a source of conflict between neighbors (and neighboring states). Water plays a significant role in the play—it's in the title, after all.
The setup of the play is that Sam and Art's old man, who is dead when the play starts, bought up a huge amount of land for pennies on the dollar at tax auctions when his neighbors went broke. Sam (the name is a coincidence, I'm sure, not an allusion to Sam Shepard) stays home on the ranch. Art, six years younger, goes off to college, moves to San Francisco, and makes a lot of money in leveraged buyouts and such. With seed money from Art, Sam starts a bottled water company, but drills down the aquifer so much that the neighbors' wells are going dry. Sam doesn't give a shit about them.
With the bottled water proceeds, Sam has built an enormous ranch house, upscale fixtures and all, but no furniture yet—maybe he is running out of money. Art and his wife Steffi, a fashion magazine editor, come to stay at the ranch for a few days. It's Steffi's first time here. She has only met Sam once, at their wedding, and he didn't behave well there. He never behaves well anywhere.
As soon as Art and Steffi walk in, the antagonism between the brothers is evident. What's behind it? Is it money, inheritance, or is there something else in their past that has set them against each other? That's the crux of the plot, and it's up to Steffi to uncover what's hidden. Tension builds gradually to a smashing conclusion, but it's not just a dysfunctional family drama. There are a lot of laughs to be had, too, and Andy Mayo and director Victoria J. Liberatori have found the right balance between the light and the heavy.
Jeff Dolecek is perfect as Sam. What's best about his performance is that he is almost sympathetic for his loneliness, stuck out there in the desert, but then he shows again what a slime-bucket he is and always has been. Justin Estes's performance as Art is less nuanced. He pretty much scowls through the entire first act and much of the second, although physically he looks the part of the rich urbanite who deigns to come back home to hicksville. A more duplicitous manner in the first act would have made his performance much more intriguing. What the heck is he up to with regard to his brother, we would be wondering.
Tristana Gonzalez is excellent at expressing the emotions of Steffi, a woman who has her perfectly put-together life pulled out from under her in a matter of a few days. George Ryan does well in the small role of a police officer.
The set, designed by VJ Liberatori, is just right for the story. Sound by Casey Mraz and costumes by Rhonda Backinoff are very good, but I do think the city slickers Art and Steffi would have brought a few more changes of clothes with them.
This play probably would have benefited from some workshopping or a series of previews, since there are a few plot elements that could be explained better or foreshadowed so they don't seem to come out of nowhere. But on the whole it's an impressive achievement for a world premiere by a local playwright. It deserves to get picked up and performed in other venues, not just in the state where it is set.
Blood and Water, through September 29, 2019, at Aux Dog Theatre Nob Hill, 3011 Monte Vista Blvd NE, Albuquerque NM. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00, Sundays at 2:00. For tickets and information, visit auxdogtheatre.org.
https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/alb/alb582.html
Broadway World
Review by Zoe Burke
Blood and Water, the newest production playing at the Aux Dog Theatre (and a world premiere at that) is a strong new piece from Albuquerque based playwright Andy Mayo. Similar to the works of Sam Shepard in construction and tone, the dark comedy examines the relationship between two estranged brothers over one fateful Christmas.
In brief, the brothers in question - Sam and Art - grew up in rural New Mexico under the guidance of their controlling (and not particularly beloved) father. But where Sam (a charismatic turn from Jeff Dolecek) remained in New Mexico, Art (a cool, collected Justin Estes) went off, went to school, and went into business, marrying the magazine editor Steffi (the posh and elegant Tristana Gonzalez) along the way.
Now Art and Steffi have come to visit Sam's extravagant new digs for "Christmas on the Pecos", and it's clear that there is little love lost between the brothers, and Art's city based business career has more to do with Sam's water bottling business and ranch than initially meets the eye. When it is revealed that Steffi has found a letter from a woman who turns out to be from both Sam and Art's pasts, the already tenuous truce between the brothers is threatened further.
The script is, generally, quite strong. There are some moments that I feel could benefit from some minor revisions - some of the motivation towards the end of the first act wasn't necessarily clear, for instance, and I felt like perhaps the final scene could have been streamlined slightly to help the play barrel towards its tragic conclusion.
These are relatively minor things, though, and the piece is still strong and engaging in its current iteration. In particular, I was delighted by the way Mr. Mayo captured the essence of the idea of a specific kind of rural life, particularly in New Mexico (there are, of course, obligatory chile jokes, but they absolutely work).
Additionally, the already intriguing plot is made even more fascinating by the performances of the lead actors, who are all wonderfully cast and have phenomenal chemistry. Victoria Liberatori, Artistic Director at the Aux Dog, as well as director of this production, further supported the storytelling with strong choices in her staging and set design. The sound design by Casey Mraz also helped sell the story (I particularly enjoyed the western/cowboy music preshow music), and Rhonda Backinoff's costumes helped establish the time (1999, in case you were wondering) and place quite well, as well as character traits.
It is my hope that Blood and Water continues to evolve and, most importantly, be produced. Such an interesting homegrown piece deserves as wide an audience as it can get, and I imagine other audiences will enjoy it as much as the crowd I saw it with did this last weekend.
Blood and Water runs Friday-Sunday (Friday and Saturday shows are at 8p, and Sunday shows are at 2p) through September 29th. Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.auxdogtheatre.org, by phone at (505)596-0607, or at the door.
AbqArts
Review by Stephanie Hainsfurther
The bond between brothers has never been stronger than in Andy Mayo’s Blood and Water, playing through its final weekend at Aux Dog Theatre Nob Hill. The title says it all and is prophetic as well: there is great strength in that bond though it lies in unresolved conflict and downright hate. Blood and Water is a struggle between older brother Sam and younger brother Art as old as the story of Cain and Abel. It’s left up to the audience to suss out which brother is which.
Sam (Jeff Dolecek) seems to have the upper hand as the tale opens. Art (Justin Estes) and his urbane wife, Steffi (Tristana Gonzalez), have arrived for “Christmas on the Pecos,” a pretty fabrication meant to bring the brothers together after a few years of alienation. Sam is building his dream house but wants Art and Steffi to live there. Art, with painful memories of his past growing up on their father’s land, isn’t having it.
The brothers are in business together, bottling water from the New Mexico aquifer and selling it under their private label, an outrageous concept in the desert. Neighboring wells are drying up. The animosity of the town toward the brothers builds, creating a sense of claustrophobia. At one point, Art asks Sam, “When was the last time you left the house?”
Without ever seeing the townspeople (embodied by George Ryan as a local police officer), we still have a sense of outside menace. When the brothers go into town to a bar they once frequented and come home bloodied, that tension becomes even more real. Keep in mind that there are just four characters in the play. Powerful writing and dramatic structure combine to keep emotions high and drive them to a devastating conclusion.
The three prime actors are a nearly flawless ensemble. I appreciated the contrast of Steffi’s relative naiveté (she knows nothing of her husband’s past) and the undercurrent of violence on the parts of both men. But when Steffi learns secrets and lies as the story unfolds, she changes. The character’s growth is down to the skills of Gonzalez, who has fun with the role but nails the necessary gravitas in due time. Steffi is the moral center of the play and Gonzalez brings the role off with panache.
Estes plays Art as an obviously unhappy participant in the holiday charade. The intensity of his anger at and loathing for his brother is mitigated by some of their more happy memories. But when finally Art smiles, watch out. His plans for his embezzling brother are as nefarious as Sam’s injuries to Art in the past. Estes does a fine job as the younger brother bent on revenge.
It’s hard to look away from Dolecek as Sam, the white-hot center of the action. He is impulsive, lascivious, predatory, and deserving of Art’s scorn. At times he also tries to make amends, although it’s hard to be charitable about his basic character. Sam wants to make things right—without first dealing with Art’s anger, their father’s brutality, or with Sam’s own crimes. When we learn what Sam did to Art in the past, we unreservedly hate him. Dolecek brings off a difficult, highly physical role to keep Sam’s attempted manipulations at the forefront of the play.
Victoria J. Liberatori directs with a sure hand. Her one-room stage set is spare, allowing the actors to move freely, and the audience to believe we’re watching the action in a house. The stage at Aux Dog never has been used so well.
There are symbols in this play—the water running beneath the land, Sam’s empty closet, the shotgun on the wall. Playwright Mayo puts them all to good use. When Steffi’s wedding ring clinks into an ashtray, it’s as if Nora slammed the door in A Doll’s House. It’s a satisfying night at the theater when the playwright knows his stuff.
—Stephanie Hainsfurther publishes ABQArts.com.
Review of Wish Upon A Star, Talkin’ Broadway
February, 2017
