Rotating repertory—when a theater puts on two different plays on an alternating schedule—is no joke, and Profile Theatre’s latest approach, pairing Quiara Alegría Hudes’ Water by the Spoonful and The Happiest Song Plays Last, is commendably ambitious—actors are double-cast in both plays, and there’s even a dual-purpose set.
Last February, Profile introduced us to Hudes’ Puerto Rican military family in Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, and their story continues in these final two installments of her play cycle. Anthony Lam reprises his role as the bubbly, boyish Elliot, a marine who’s returned from Iraq and is now seeking television work. Crystal Ann Muñoz is a new addition to the cast as Yaz, Elliot’s disciplined music professor cousin. Their incongruous dynamic is one of Hudes’ most delightful inventions, and it’s most effective in Water by the Spoonful.
If you can only make it to one play, it should be that one. It’s a Pulitzer winner and a surprisingly touching, tightly focused piece that both fleshes out Elliot’s earlier story and stands on its own. It also stars Julana Torres, one of those actors who can bring warmth and humanity to even the most complex, unlikable characters. Here she’s Odessa, a recovering drug addict who’s been clean for years and now works a menial job and moderates an online forum for fellow addicts. Hudes takes her time with Odessa, positioning her forum participants’ lives as a foil to the main storyline about Elliot and Yaz until both cohere in a way that’s both heartbreaking and narratively satisfying.