Adoration of the Old Woman

Set against the backdrop of Puerto Rico’s struggle with the issue of statehood, a young woman, who speaks no Spanish, moves in with her 105-year-old great grandmother who speaks no English. Both women deal with problems of love - the younger with two new suitors and the older with the ghost of her husband’s mistress. .. . There is more - much, much more - to Jose Rivera’s new play, ADORATION OF THE OLD WOMAN. But the play’s internal engine - its life and humor and earthiness - is driven by the shockingly profane, deeply poetic words of this spiritual old woman. Dona Belen may be the most fascinating character in Rivera’s fertile oeuvre … his plays are infused with the flavor we’ve come to associate with Latin writing - the rich imagery and lyricism of Federico Garcia Lorca, the earthy sensuality and surrealism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But Rivera’s concerns are universal. His characters may be brown-skinned, but his subject is the human soul. ADORATION OF THE OLD WOMAN is Rivera’s most overtly political play yet. It’s a work that combines Rivera’s heightened sense of language and visually rich dreamscapes with a deeply felt probing of Puerto Rican independence. It’s part ghost story, part political debate. It’s magical realism meets a Puerto Rican Crossfire … if Rivera never really seems to make his - the decision about Puerto Rican self-determination - he has left us with the evidence we need to make one for ourselves. And in that he fulfills what the physician-turned-playwright Anton Chekov said is the writer’s chief responsibility: not providing a cure, but correctly diagnosing the problem. -Joel Beers, Orange County Weekly