Suddenly, I’m jerked back to life and I’m out of my funk. It’s like witnessing the first night launch of the space shuttle as a child. As it ascends like a reverse meteor headed for the blackened sky, everyone around you is crying and you don’t know why, but your bones tell you it’s right.

FUNDarte

Who the hell do you think you are, anyway? That’s the gist of “La Reunión.” Written and directed by Trinidad González, the play uses historical events to craft a story that ultimately shreds the souls of the two main characters. Queen Isabel of Spain (played by Trinidad González) summons Christopher Columbus (played by Jorge Becker) to her austere private chambers. These two strong-willed characters engage in a head-to-head conversation/violent physical battle/lovers’ quarrel/scathing-blistering-personal-political-character assassination that strips these two powerful historical figures down to the bone. What’s left are two deflated and dysfunctional egos. An odd couple. Two bitter, old fools.

Columbus, accused of abusing his powers while in the Indies, must answer to Isabel. The Queen, however, is not above reproach. Her actions, motivations and faux austerity are brutally attacked. Her throne is a wheelchair and a reminder of her mortality even though she believes, “Yo soy Dios!” (“I am God!”). Isabel accuses Columbus of raping and murdering indigenous women and children while overseas, people she claims are her children that she freed from slavery. But, Columbus points out, Isabel killed her own child by leading Spain to battle while pregnant (she miscarried). Oh, and he points out her Inquisition aimed at Muslims and Jews.

The play takes on the Catholic church, the rape and murder of millions of indigenous people by  Europeans, the Spanish Inquisition, Marxist class-struggle and the monarchy. Most importantly, “La Reunión” is a love story, but a love for oneself against a love for one’s country. In the end, we’re all dead, and finally free, from the bitterness of life and the unbearable burden of memory.

When the play ended, I looked left and right, and then behind me. Everyone was crying, even the actors. Their performance was extraordinary–brilliant beings. And I’m thankful to be alive. Thankful for Ever Chavez and FUNDarte for bringing Teatro en el Blanco to Miami. “La Reunión” represents the best of theater and the worst of the human condition. Two ingredients that endure as we struggle to live in a contemporary culture that conditions us to be anything but human. Live theater reminds us that we’ve got a long way to go.

See everything from FUNDarte. Visit upcoming performances at www.fundarte.us.