Another Word for Beauty

Another Word for Beauty

Surprises and Reaffirms

There’s a big difference between coping with adversity and prevailing over it. The Goodman’s production of Another Word for Beauty brought that point home with a vengeance.

Who would want to enter a beauty pageant in a prison? Why would a prison even have a beauty pageant? Those questions and many more were answered in this story about the five women competing in the contest and the circles of fellow prisoners who surround, support and encourage each one of them.

A brief trip to Colombia several years ago left me very discouraged about the country’s views on race. Even in this story set in a prison, I did not expect there would be any representation of the country’s Afro Latin presence. It was a pleasant shock to see that I was wrong and an even greater shock to see that the young woman playing Luzmery (Danaya Esperanza) bore such an amazing resemblance to one of my nieces.

As the old woman (Socorro Santiago) who provides the narrative bridge between scenes explains, Colombia is a country obsessed with beauty pageants and a country full of beautiful people. Incorporating something so central to the culture into the setting of a prison is not so far fetched after all.

Flashbacks explaining how each of the five women got to prison is just one of the many details that fill the play with a constant stream of fascination. Many but not all of the women came from challenging backgrounds or were compromised by the most meager of educational opportunities. In a country staggering from more than 60 years of civil war, saturated in political corruption and awash in the commerce of drugs, the roads to incarceration are many. Add to that the various forms of sexual predation a woman can find herself subjected to and the high stakes socio-political allegiances that entice and motivate both the idealistic and the intelligent, prisons become an inevitable destination.

Playwright Jose´ Rivera’s never veers from his chief intent of conveying the humanity of these women. Indeed, this play serves as homage to their perseverance and strength. Whether they’re mothers raising children in prison (until they’re three), political prisoners who have killed to advance a political ideology or like the narrator, repeatedly committed crimes in order to return to prison, the only real home she’s known, they each maintain a hefty dose of dignity through Rivera’s pen. More importantly, they retain the ability to dream. Their stories prove where there are dreams, you’ll find hope.

The cast was made up mostly of New York actors; some like Esperanza Juilliard trained. They were a striking group. Carmen Zilles who played Isabelle, the boastfully confident stunner who’s secretly haunted by some of the people she’s killed, has true stage charisma and is a powerfully talented actor. The scene in which she reenacts a killing was stunning.

So many of the performers in what is essentially an all female show dazzled. This truth even trickled down to some of the more minor characters like Carmen (Marisol Miranda). Confrontational, tough and sporting enough swag to rock the block, your eyes and ears gravitated to her whenever she appeared.

It was odd how little the audience responded to Esperanza’s Luzmery. Charming in the way youth is charming and so comfortable in the theatrical element. It’s as if she clearly understood and welcomed the wonderful role she was playing and had every confidence in her ability to send it soaring. She did.

Goodman Theater

Main Stage

January 16 – February 21, 2016