Sandra Cisneros's seminal book, The House on Mango Street, captures the essence of Chicago's rough-hewn, working-class landscape in the same way that other literary classics like Stuart Dybek's The Coast of Chicago and Nelson Algren's The Man With The Golden Arm did. The difference, of course, is that Cisneros provided the first woman of color's perspective to come out of the Chicago experience since Gwendolyn Brooks. This makes the book, and its first adaptation at Steppenwolf, all the more compelling.
Filled with short vignettes of scenes and people who pass through a Northwest Side neighborhood, which flow without a clear storyline or plot, The House on Mango Street doesn't lend itself well to stage adaptation. But adapter Tanya Sarancho managed to create a magical production of music, movement and words. Opening with a vibrant scene of people yelling out familiar street names, the cast launches into a salsa-tinged number, "We Didn't Always Live On Mango Street." The word-for-word recreation of the first line of the book reveals Sarancho's intention to closely follow Cisneros's lyrical prose. The narrator, Esperanza (a luminous Sandra Delgado), guides the audience through her neighborhood of crumbling houses, secondhand bicycles, jump rope and baptism parties.
With Spanish phrases peppering the production and entire pages of the book transformed into lively dialogue, the production brings Cisneros's nuanced coming-of-age story to life. There's Esperanza's pesky little sister Nenny (Gina Cornejo) trailing after her; Alicia (Liza Fernandez), the serious college student who's determined not to end up in a factory or over a rolling pin; and the rambunctious Lucy (Belinda Cervantes) and Rachel (a charismatic Christina Nieves), neighbors who play and fight with Esperanza every day. In just 90 minutes, the play effectively takes Esperanza from a shy adolescent to a clear-eyed teen who's secure in her identity. It's a tall order, but "The House On Mango Street" accomplishes the task memorably.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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