Synopsis
On a rustic stretch of Mexico’s Pacific coast (think Night of the Iguana) we find three multi-racial couples—one straight, one lesbian, one gay—and a handsome local artist. The action conjures A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but if the youths in the Athenian woods encounter the inexplicable, magical nature of falling in love, these couples uncover the startling miracle (milagro) of forces that can bind hearts through the outrageous fortunes of a lifetime. In the play, Oberlin, an Episcopal priest stationed in an affluent expat community in Mexico’s colonial highland for the past 35 years, “borrows” his church’s money to purchase a one-of-a-kind collection of “milagros” – folk art depicting modern-day miracles wrought by the saints. On the run, and needing cash to pay back the church’s coffers, he enlists his estranged wife, Teresa – a renowned Mexican chef, now a devoted leftist working to feed the poor of Mexico’s South – to help him. Oberlin conscripts Teresa, along with his assistant Paco, in the opening of an “eco-resort” on a rugged portion of the Mexico coast. Their first guests, Robert and Michael, and Paula and Stephanie, happen, like the Athenian youths, into a world brimming with almost magical possibility. Robert, a second generation Mexican-American, now a San Francisco marketing executive, has mistaken the eco-friendly (read: barebones) “Bahia Luna” resort of the play with the posh “Bahia Media Luna” establishment featured in a luxury guidebook. His plan to entice Michael, his partner of five years, into formally tying the knot with a proposal staged with Champagne, waving palms and 350-thread-count sheets is blown to pieces by the rustic realities of their surroundings. Michael, for his part, is deeply anxious over the future of their relationship having just received the sobering news that he has tested positive for HIV – a virus he knows he has acquired from an out-of-town fling. Paula has tagged along with Stephanie, her one-time lover, partly to mark her ex’s 50th birthday and partly to uncover what spurred Stephanie’s mysterious disappearance (and hasty marriage) twenty years before. Paula hopes to find an opportunity to rekindle their flame in the tropical sunsets until she elicits the truth of Stephanie’s emotional cowardice and willingness to hide from her own identity. Oberlin and Teresa spar relentlessly, in their usual manner, until Teresa pressures a confession from Oberlin that breaks through their long-standing defenses. Paco puckishly revels in his role as trickster and matchmaker holding up a shimmering vision of a “milagro” that just might be within reach for each of the couples if they can just see the miracle before them. At the end, as in a good Shakespearean comedy, wedding vows all around conclude the action.
