El Nogalar at Goodman Theatre - Not Recommended

I really didn't want to give this one a negative review. After all, it's not without merit. But it's not worth the price of admission, in my opinion. If you get a reduced rate, go for the positives I'll mention below, but otherwise - redirect your hard-earned ticket dollars in another direction.

El Nogalar is a re-working of Chekov's The Cherry Orchard done by Tanya Saracho for Teatro Vista. It has a number of intriguing bits and pieces, and - typical of the high quality one comes to expect from the Goodman - the set is stunning. In particular, the use of a huge, beautifully executed doll house to indicate the geography of the scenes - as well as serve as a constant reminder of the importance of the residence itself - was wonderful. Other touches were also well-executed, including the orchard and what I suppose must be called the barbeque pit.

There was a bit of audio punctuation that was used from time to time that could best be described as synthesized verbal buzzing, but I couldn't decipher what it meant to the development of the story. By and large, however, the production values were excellent; alas, they're only one of the legs needed to support the three-legged beast known as a play.

The writing itself is the second leg, and in this case we were presented not with character development but more a series of expositions that were more monologues than anything else. The story lurches forward, one plot element after the next, but very rarely did we get the sense that any growth was taking place, let alone any really challenging conflict.

To add insult to injury, there was some very obvious product placement in the dialogue, and it stood out like a sore (and putrefying) thumb. Was it necessary to have repeated references to Apple, in particular their iPad2? This was a shonde, and should have been left out.

On the positive side, I appreciate the playwright's attempt to render Chekov into modern times, and I believe that the use of the Mexican drug cartels was a reasonable choice. Likewise, the use of Spanish throughout was an interesting choice, but I believe it needs some refinement. I understand enough Spanish to get through the play, but clearly there were inside jokes in the Spanish that only bits and pieces of the audience "got." Is the author attempting to set up a divide that mimics that between the emigrees and those who stayed behind? I'm not certain - just curious.

The final "leg" is the performance itself, and in this case the acting was uneven and disappointing (but not terrible). It's difficult to assess how much was due to the material and how much to the actors themselves, but it's worth noting that the one character who demonstrated movement (though I wouldn't call it growth) was Dunia, and Yuneun Pardo's performance in that role was the strongest of the lot. At the other end of the spectrum, the role of López seemed to have been ripe for growth, but Carlo Lorenzo Garcia's performance was the weakest.

All in all, this was a disappointing way to spend a couple of hours and more than a few dollars.