Arts » News

A Recipe for a Pandemic Escape

by Jules Becker
Thursday May 20, 2021

This article is from the May 20, 2021 issue of South End News.


Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez, the writers and stars of "Black Beans Project" presented by the Huntington Theatre Company. Courtesy of the Huntington Theatre Company
Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez, the writers and stars of "Black Beans Project" presented by the Huntington Theatre Company. Courtesy of the Huntington Theatre Company  

With people spending more time in the kitchen during COVID-19, the online play "Black Beans Project"—written and acted by Melinda Lopez and Joel Perez—serves up an ideal dish of family tradition and sibling warmth. Set in split screen kitchens—respectively in Ithaca, New York and Orlando, this sister-brother collaborative finds Mariana(Marie) and Henrique(Ricky) sharing not only their late Cuban-American mother's 'secret' recipe for the title legumes but also cherished family memories and concerning issues as adults.
"Black Beans Project'' may be a disarmingly simple mixture (under an hour in length). Still both tax preparer Mariana and graphic designer Ricky are characters in flux. Mariana tells Ricky that she has been getting rid of her husband Carlos' things since their divorce. She is even offering up the piano their mother played and considering doing the same with her condo. At the same time, she has become a kind of COVID-19 era agoraphobic who depends on home deliveries. For his part, Ricky has been spending about a year with their Orlando-based Puerto Rican-American father—who keeps their mother's ashes "hostage" in a closet box rather than the striking urn his son had purchased. A 'serial monogamist,' her gay New York City-centered brother lacks privacy at his father's place for a relationship with a new boyfriend and resorts to frequent masturbation during a "celibate" year.
Clearly the recipe project provides a welcome escape from their respective limbo-like lives and a potential culinary GPS for more fulfilling family connection-even as COVID-19 and political factors involving Goya's CEO are mentioned. Smartly, Lopez and Perez have divided their play into parts fittingly labeled "Prep," "Simmer" and "Taste." During the prep, Marie vividly remembers sorting beans the morning before Christmas Eve as her talented mother played piano. By contrast, Ricky reminisces about 'spellbound' campsite beans. Both fondly recall stargazing experiences, and Ricky mentions their mother's belief that owls were a good omen. Lopez and Perez are so adept at blending the recipe's ingredients and the characters' reflections that many theater viewers are likely to try their own hands at the play's vegetable and spice-rich mixture and call up their own memories.
Could the simultaneous preparation, simmering and tasting of their respective bean dishes become a good omen? Might Mariana and Ricky take a timely lesson about living from their father's hatred of Quincy and their mother's dissatisfaction with Florida heat? Does Ricky have a point when he contends that Mariana's willingness to sell the family piano means "You're getting rid of her "? On the other hand, should their father join them and their mother's ashes on a journey to the White Mountains she loved, as she advises? Lopez and Perez incorporate the answers to these questions in a satisfying resolution.
Under Jaime Castaneda's sharp direction, "Black Beans Project" has all the warmth and authenticity of a real sibling zoom. Lopez and Perez are always convincingly affectionate if direct as Mariana and Ricky. Lopez has all of the sister's ease in the kitchen and her deep caring for her brother. She brings stunning force to Mariana's warning that Ricky is running away from grief. Lopez captures Ricky's charm and unassuming manner. He delivers the brother's counsel about Mariana hiding with singular intensity. Making the sibling dynamics and memories all the more expressive are Hana S.Kim's painterly video design and Taylor Ness' radiant zoom and lighting.
"Black Beans Project" is a richly flavored Huntington Theatre Company presentation. Do not miss its savory combination of ethnic cuisine, family tradition and human caring.