“Lorca in a Green Dress,” co-presented by Teatro del Pueblo and Pangea World Theater runs through April 28 at the Ritz Theater.

“Lorca in a Green Dress,” Pulitzer-winning playwright Nilo Cruz’s surreal homage to poet and dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca, opened at the Ritz Theater last weekend. The play, directed by Teatro del Pueblo’s Alberto Justiniano, marks the fourth collaborative production by the Knight Arts grantee company and Pangea World Theater.

The curtain opens on 1936 Spain and civil war — specifically, the occasion of Lorca’s assassination that August, when he was shot and killed (most likely by Nationalist militia) near his family home in Granada. The writer had drawn the wrong kind of attention as political winds in Spain turned toward Republican and Nationalist factions, persecuted both for suspected Communist sympathies and for persistent rumors about his sexual identity. Spain in the 1930s was a country in flux, beset by cultural and political turmoil but still predominantly conservative and traditionally Catholic — a perilous time, for sure, to be either a free-thinking poet or gay.

The poet finds himself, post-gunshot, in a sort of purgatory (“but more civilized, less religious”), surrounded by hooded figures, “agents of his higher being” representing Lorca’s own alternate personae: “Lorca with Bicycle Pants,” his childhood, innocent self (Rolando Martinez); “Lorca as a Woman,” his feminine aspect and female characters, the women he’s loved and with whom he’s identified (Andrea San Miguel); “Lorca in a White Suit,” the successful writer, his public face(Matt Rein); “Lorca in a Green Dress,” his closeted desires and most private self (played with sensitivity and wit by David Schlosser). This cast is accompanied by a pair of “guards” who run the show and Lorca’s Duende, his artistic and spirit-self in the form of a flamenco dancer (performed with stylish, percussive flair by dancer Virginia Robinson).

Matt Rein, Ricardo Vázquez and Virginia Robinson in “Lorca In A Green Dress.” Photo by Nancy Wong

At the center of all this is “Lorca with Blood,” our recently killed protagonist (Ricardo Vazquez), who needs to be convinced of the reality and irrevocability of his death in order to leave the land of the living behind and ascend “to the next level.” To this end, he’s ensconced in “The Lorca Room” for 40 days, subjected to a series of dramatic, instructive re-enactments of episodes in his life by these other, role-playing “Lorcas”. (We’re told such “transcription of reveries” is a special dispensation granted to poets and artists by the powers that be — that his is “like the Goya Room, or the Vermeer Room,” intended to hasten his understanding and acceptance of his fate and facilitate a seamless transition to the Other Side by way of thanks for his artistic contributions to humanity.)

Set designer Zach Morgan’s “Lorca Room” has the feel of a backstage storage area, filled with set pieces and props awaiting use: scaffolding and raised platforms sit toward the back of the stage, against the backdrop of a nighttime cityscape in silhouette. On one side is a director’s chair next to stacks of boxes filled with film reels which we’re told document the poet’s early life and provide source material for the various Lorcas’ plays. Suitcases and small tables, various props are piled here and there, ready to be deployed as needed to replay scenes from the poet’s formative memories. Dominating center stage are empty picture frames hung askew and surreal painted set pieces – a large melted clock,  a hand holding an egg – imagery made famous by Lorca’s dear friend (and unrequited love) Salvador Dali.

David Otto Simanek and Ricardo Vázquez. Photo by Nancy Wong, courtesy of Teatro del Pueblo

The ensemble works well together to conjure Lorca’s inner world; the percussive stomp of flamenco and atmospheric musical accompaniment by guitarist Scott Mateo Davies enrich those efforts immeasurably. Ricardo Vazquez, in the lead role, plays the recently slain Lorca with particular subtlety and dimension. But the narrative structure of the story is, by design, circuitous; individual scenes are evocative and engaging, but the plot, the story holding them together feels thin. “Lorca in a Green Dress” isn’t a play driven by events or reason; it runs on dream logic and poetic imagery (in fact, many of the play’s most memorable turns of phrase are lifted directly from Lorca’s writing). As a result, Nilo Cruz’s elegy to the lost poet is resonant but diffuse – like the vivid but not-quite-connected impressions left by beloved but only half-remembered stories from one’s childhood.

“Lorca in a Green Dress,” co-presented by Pangea World Theater and Teatro del Pueblo, written by Nilo Cruz and directed by Alberto Justiniano, is on stage through April 28 at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis, 345 13th Ave. NE, Minneapolis.