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EXQUISITE AGONY 
Exquisita Agonía 
Nilo Cruz’s operatic play  at GALA, Exquisite Agony, starts with questions that Cruz had about heart transplant patients. “Does a recipient inherit traits of the donor? Does their taste and other senses change? How does a body react when a new element becomes a part of it?” 
Inspired by musicians, Cruz created a story about an opera singer who wants to meet the transplant patient who received the heart of her dead husband, a famous conductor.  
Luz Nicolás is glamorous and dramatic, as Millie swirling between reality and fantasy. Through the intercession of Doctor Castillo played by Ariel Texidó she meets the recipient, Amér played by Joel Hernández Lara.  The first thing she wants to do is hug him so she can be near “the heart” of her deceased husband.  
The line between what is possibly real and what is her imaginary life is fragile.  At a dinner for Amér to meet her two children  Tommy played by Andrés Talero and  Romy by  Catherine Nunez, the  heartlessness of the deceased  as father is revealed, shattering the coverup stories of his behavior by Millie
José Antonio González as Amér’s brother Imanol  swings from his persuading  Amér to meet Millie in Act 1, to being most anxious to have him leave the dinner event as the family explodes in Act 2.
Touches of ancient and classical drama (think if Antigone and Hamlet were sister and brother) but with the addition of modern procedures like heart operations and devices like cell phones—all add up to make  Exquisite Agony  a masterwork. 
Performed in Spanish, with English subtitles, there are moments when no translation is needed to feel what is happening.   There are moments when the characters burst into speeches, like operatic arias. So like operas often experienced in a foreign language but still understood.
There is not time enough to digest the wisdom in this play to resolve the questions  about the human heart, emotions and memory of an individual.   Unlike a traditional ghost story, Exquisite Agony does not offer easy answers to explain phenomena.
Special Note: On display in the gallery, are four works by Byron Galvey, a prominent  Mexican artist, dubbed by Vincent Price as the “Mexican Picasso.”  
This production of Exquisite Agony is itself a work of art from its scenic design  by Clifton Chadick and costumes by Moyenda Kulemeka.  Special note to Sound Designer David Crandall who working with Cruz’s playlist brought lush opera and symphony moments in all the right places, leaving us to wonder if this was not really an opera of recitatives after all.


 GALA Theatre, 3333 14th Street NW, to March 1.

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