Mala is good to the core

Mala, Arts Emerson production presented by Huntington Theatre Company at Roberts Theatre in Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through February 4. 617-933-8600 or bostontheatrescene.com

Melinda Lopez returned to her two-culture family-her Cuban roots and her husband's Jewish traditions-once again last year in her own work. The veteran actress and Huntington Theatre Company playwright-in-residence had already tapped that singular combination in her affectionate award-winning play "Sonia Flew" (Huntington Theatre 2004 premiere, with IRNE and Norton honors).

Now she is reprising her more recent autobiographically influenced work- the one-actress play ''Mala,'' a 2016 premiere at Arts Emerson's Paramount Center-as a presentation by Huntington at the Calderwood Pavilion. Once again, under the seamless guidance of Arts Emerson artistic director David Dower, she is poetically alluding to the experiences of her own Cuban-American family and her husband's.

While this very thoughtful play has a Lopez persona speaking vividly of the passing of a striking father and focuses largely on the care-giving of a Lopez persona for her dying mother, it also speaks significantly of her husband's religious observance at the passing of his parents and their daughter's interest in the Jewish customs related to mourning.

"Mala" wisely mixes humor-for example, detail about the caregiver's four earlier boyfriends (three Jewish and one a ginger) -with candor-such challenges as her mother's subdural hematoma surgery-right from the start.

The chronicler daughter-a kind of Lopez persona- advises knowingly about caregivers' cell phones and details the difficulties of convincing her proud and tough-minded mother Frances to go to the MGH emergency room when necessary. If you suspect that this piece might end up a feel-good tribute to beleaguered children helping their ailing parents, think again.

Lopez is not depicting the daughter in question as a totally sweet, all-knowing daughter. In fact, the dying 92 year old mother unfairly accuses her of being ''Mala,'' Spanish for 'bad'-bad to the core, in fact. Although she becomes the attentive Good Cop to her rarely visiting scientist sister Bad Cop, she does have moments of high tension and rancor with Frances.

Still, the Good Cop grows closer and closer to her terminally ill mother (cancer) during long stretches together while eating clementines and watching Spanish telenovelas. Those stretches- during the especially harsh 2015 Boston area storms- are beautifully enhanced by Kristine Holmes' white dominated scenic design, Scott Pinkney's nuanced lighting and Arshan Gallus' evocative sound design

Lopez' culturally conscious narrative also looks at the mother's emigration from Cuba and her strong connection with her native culture-including the remembrance of a Cuban lullaby. By contrast, there is the loving recall of father in-law Bernie and mother-in-law Bobbie-the latter who would note that 1492 was not only the time when Columbus embarked on an exploration for Ferdinand and Isabelle but also the year Jews were banished from Spain as a result of the Inquisition.

Mala, who believes in Darwin (some theatergoers will recall Lopez' provocative 2011 IRNE Award play "From Orchids to Octopi" with Underground Railway Theatre at Central Square Theatre), does speak with respect of the Jewish custom of covering mirror and memorial candle lighting in the house of mourners.

At the same time, the gifted actress smoothly interweaves other peoples' stories signaled by the smart projection design of Ari Herzig. For example, Lopez convincingly becomes a short Italian-American hairdresser named Gina, dealing with a hospice factor.

Eventually Lopez-through Mala's recollections and observations-admits that nothing fully prepares anybody for dealing with the formidable responsibilities of caring for a dying parent, challenges that of course confront all people.

Although the unassuming daughter remarks that "Death doesn't make one wise," she does warmly advise fellow caregivers and all human beings alike, "You are capable of more than you thought possible." If "Mala" the play still seems less extraordinary than Lopez's deeply heartfelt performance, it does engagingly affirm the need to embrace the value of caring in the face of human limitation and mortality.