There’s no questioning the brutal timeliness of Sandra Delgado’s new play, “Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars.” The TimeLine Theatre production running through Nov. 9 in the Lookingglass Theatre space at the Water Tower Water Works, follows the harrowing plight of an immigrant staring down the barrel of deportation from the U.S., the country where she’s lived since she was a baby.
But Delgado’s drama becomes mired by overwhelming projections and interstitial, interpretive dance sequences that unfold between each scene. These interludes don’t so much punctuate and amplify the relentless tension fueling the plot so much as they dilute and distract from it. And while the cast does a credible job, it can’t overcome the trippy, kaleidoscopic interruptions or lighten the belabored, extended astral metaphor that gives Delgado’s piece its title.
Yes, humans are made of the same stuff as stars. No, that point does not need to be made every time there’s a scene change.
Delgado stars as Clara (the name is derived from the Latin word for “bright”), a 40something immigrant who has been in the U.S. since she was 2. She’s worked, married and divorced here, and is raising her tween daughter Stella (Latin for “star,” and played by Charlotte Arias on opening night, Simona Gueglio-Saccone at alternating performances).
The production is only 90 minutes, but it still takes far too long for the plot to kick in. There’s a lot of table-setting that lays out the issues at stake and provides each of the characters with a few defining traits. We’re in 2015 Chicago, and Clara is waiting on her citizenship papers. She’s certain they’ll come through. The U.S. is the only country she’s ever known. She’s been working and paying taxes her entire adult life. She has a U.S.-born daughter and was married to a U.S. citizen.
It’s no real surprise that Clara’s dreams of citizenship are ruthlessly upended. She’s flagged for deportation thanks to a decades-old expunged conviction for smoking a joint and an equally long-ago traffic stop where cops found a minuscule amount of weed in the glove compartment. The convictions are enough to send her away forever.
Directed by Kimberly Senior, the cast is mostly effective. As Clara, Delgado is believably anguished, enraged and confused by the Kafkaesque labyrinth of immigration law. When she boils her legal problems down to one self-evident truth, her clarity is crystalline, the dialogue visceral: “I am in this situation because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong (expletive) last name.”
As Clara’s weed-somelier/nursing student/best friend Ruben, Joshua David Thomas (filling in for Donovan Marquis Diaz opening night) commands the stage with offhand charisma as he as outlines the impossibly cruel ironies of the laws around cannabis: Clara could be deported over a joint while white people are making millions from moving pounds and pounds of cannabis in states like Colorado, where it’s legal.
As Stella, Charlotte Arias delivers a hilariously accurate tween attitude — until the prospect of profound, life-changing loss derails her life. Brian King makes Clara’s ex-husband, David, a soft-spoken, good-hearted man determined to keep his daughter safe. Ramón Camín twinkles with trite but true wisdom Clara’s father as Papi. Charín Álvarez, meanwhile, has little to do but wander and point as silent, ancient and oblique Chava. She’s far better used in her other role as Yolanda Vega, an empathetic, matter-of-fact immigration attorney.
Competent cast notwithstanding, Senior’s direction makes “Stars” a tale of heart-wrenching urgency but it’s overcome by production bells and whistles.
Eme Ospina-López’ projections — a mass of whirling, pixilated vortexes — flicker and beam on the massive curved walls of Garcia’s brutalist set. Cast members whirl and pose in Raquel Torre’s choreography. Lighting designer Christine A. Binder bathes the stage in the glimmering blue-black psychedelia of the galaxies. It all reads like a secondary exhibit at a discount planetarium and adds up to a prolonged metaphor centered on the cosmos that feels both strained and clichéd.
“Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars” aims to address a crucial issue, embedding it in the music of the spheres and the celestial grandeur of the multiverse. It would be better if the latter were toned down. Then, the story could shine.
Correction: This story has been updated to say Charlotte Arias portrayed the character of Stella on opening night, Simona Gueglio-Saccone at alternating performances.