Surrealistic sizzler

The provocative title of “References to Salvador Dali Make MeHot” opened a doorway to the most sizzling salsa sexuality on a live stage in avery long time. When was the last time you experienced observing a writhingfemale cat-woman in heat copulating with a coyote-man three inches away fromyour left shoe?

Scene designer Chip Davis III opened up the cavern-likeconfines of the Michigan State University Arena stage with a sand-swept expanse of spaciousness thatsuggested an infinite desert stretching everywhere. The moon emerged out ofdarkness, a gaunt figure perched on a flat-topped obelisk. He played asoulful violin as the coyote was seen slinking into the courtyard of the cat: ZacheraWollenberg in a black leotard, one leg naked, the other in a blackstocking. She had all the moves,undulating across the floor. Adam Ehrlich was the “Coyote,” scruffy and wild. This was magic realism at its best, a dream sequence in the mind’s eye of centralcharacter Gabriela, who slept semi-naked on the desert floor. Playwright Rivera’s wordplay betweencat and coyote is seductive and sensuous, as both animals imagine devouringeach other’s sexual parts. Wollenberg and Ehrlich generated heat, hot, hot, heat —with syrupy succulent sounds and howling, moaning, soft, whispery voices.

Eventually, this sequence moved to the sides of the set,opening up the center of the stage for the reality-based core of the play.Benito, coming home war-torn, damaged and horny from the conflicts inIraq and Afghanistan, arrives todiscover Gabriela has beenflirt-dancing with Martin, her 14-year-old neighbor, who spies on her each night on the desert sands. Reality mirrors the dream sequence as Gabriela and Benito struggle with urgentupfront raw sexuality combined with the disappearance of sensual tenderness during the timethey have been apart. Much of Act II is an extended love-hate conflict,which was acted out exquisitely by LaurenLoGrasso, as Gabriela, exhausting herself with emotional excess, while Benito, played by Curran Jacobs, displayed a contrasting, tightlywired rage that eventually exploded as well. This conflict comes to a climax, literally, as the coupleretreats to the marital bed, violently merging with each other in pain andpassion. Will they survive this earthquake encounter and live to see anotherday? LoGrasso and Jacobs became amatched pair in this eruptive sexual dance, as real as real can get.

Equally well-matchedin this production were the words of the playwright with the performances. Chris Robinson, as Martin, wasdelightfully adolescent, while the Moon, played by Dennis Corsi, was amusinglyironic.