Show Business Review: Intringulis

As an election year looms on the horizon, we are sure to hear plenty of perspectives on the hotly debated issue of illegal immigration. While the politicians trade statistics, theater artists are responding with powerful dispatches from inside America’s grey zone of citizenship. Last year’s De Novo examined the legal labyrinth in which many undocumented immigrants find themselves trapped. Now, the Intar Theatre adds to the cultural conversation with a touching and funny solo effort by the versatile Carlo Alban.

At the beginning of the evening, and in certain select spots throughout the show, Alban picks up his guitar and sings the songs of Nueva Canción artists like Victor Jara and Violeta Parra. It’s the music of his parents’ generation, an echo of a more idealistic era in Latin American history. The words still have meaning for Carlo, but by the 1980’s his mother and father no longer hope for a good life in their home country of Ecuador. Their new dream is to get to the United States, and when a tourist visa is granted, they seize the opportunity to relocate. Leaving four adult children behind, the Albans settle in New Jersey, where counterfeit papers enable them to work. But despite the family’s ordinary appearance, their toehold in middle-class America is perpetually threatened by a lack of authentic documentation. Under the circumstances, it would seem sensible to keep a low profile, but when Carlo exhibits a passion for show business, his loving mother and father won’t stand in the way of his dreams. He appears in community theater and even lands a recurring role on Sesame Street. As he grows into his teens, Carlo’s life resembles that of a typical suburban kid. He smokes pot, adds grunge and heavy metal to his musical repertoire, and aids his older brother in testing the limits of his parents’ authority. Inside, though, he feels like something of an outsider, chronically aware of the fragility of his situation.

However, through luck, determination and ingenuity, the Albans eventually get on the track to citizenship. But the saga doesn’t stop there, nor is its ending an entirely happy one. Carlo’s brother Pachely, now a civil rights lawyer in Ecuador, comes to visit only to find that the distance between him and Carlo is more just geographical. When Carlo’s adopted country is attacked by terrorists, his sense of national identity is concretized. But Pachely views things from a different angle, seeing an intringulis—a hidden agenda—of American manipulation behind much of the suffering and injustice in the world. The resulting ideological rift takes its toll on the family.

There are so many intriguing characters and complex arguments here that Alban would do well to consider a full-cast treatment of the same story. But if the one-man form has limitations, it also has its advantages, especially with such a charismatic and multi-talented performer at center stage. Displaying remarkable versatility, Alban morphs into a host of compelling characters, including from family members to a New Jersey barfly to an undocumented window washer hoping to bring his wife and child to America some day. His monologues are written with a keen sense of the poetry of everyday speech and with a delicate touch that encapsulates both the humor and melancholy in the characters’ thought processes. He is given ample production support by Erik Pearson’s projections, Julian Mesri’s sound design, Raul Abrego’s flexible set and Jorge Arroyo’s fluid lighting design. Director David Anzuelo keeps pace tight and weaves the show’s multitude of vignettes into a coherent and moving whole.

Intringulis; Written and performed by Carlo Alban; Directed by David Anzuelo; INTAR Theatre, 500 West 52 Street, New York, NY.