Reviewed by David Roberts for Theatre Reviews Limited
 
The old saying "Don't discuss politics or religion with family or friends" really doesn't go far enough.  Sex must be added to the list.  When one talks with family or friends about what one does with one's sexual being and with whom one "does" that, one can expect in reaction anything from a few sparks to a nuclear meltdown.  Both ends of that emotional spectrum can be found center stage at the Milagro Theatre during its production of A. B. Lugo's passionate play "Banjee."
 
Lugo's "urban drama" tells the story of Angel (Indio Melendez), a straight homeboy, and Tony (Will Sierra), an admittedly bi banjee, who've known each other since childhood.  These two friends, both with female partners, spend their nights hustling at La Belle Vie, a local gay bar, for the money they need for their families and for their on-again off-again forays into drugs.  Why they choose being sex workers rather than security guards is the question on everyone's mind, including their own.  It certainly is on the mind of each of their girlfriends Marlena (Marilyn T.) and Ileana (Iris Aay) when each finds out what her man is doing at night when she thinks he's employed as a security guard.
 
Both acts move between the gay bar, Angel and Marlena's apartment, and the street outside La Belle Vie and the play's emotional life moves between the relative stability of the "home" and the excitement and danger of the bar and street where Angel and Tony find themselves exploring emotions and feelings not experienced in their domestic lives with Marlena and Ileana.  Angel would rather not be hustling and gladly takes the advice of the bar's resident "sometimes drag queen" and bartender Jose (Andre Rodriquez) who tells him to get out of the hustle.  Tony, on the other and, seems more hardened to his work and will do whatever he needs to do to tease cash from his johns.  Angel honestly wants to make things work with Marlena and their baby even though Marlena's college vocabulary sometimes makes him feel less than adequate.  Tony and Ileana aren't sure what they want from their relationship, especially after Tony's affirms his bisexuality.  To complicate matters, Tony's real love is for his friend Angel, a love which he realizes will be mostly unrequited.
 
I won't say much about the amount of male flesh the audience sees during this production, except to say that it's all good and none of the "sightings" are gratuitous.  Playwright and director and cast are aware of how sensual and how sexual we all are and how the repression of our sexuality (or our blatant denial of our sexuality) can cause a good deal of pain to one's psyche and in one's relationships.  The honesty of the activity on stage does much to equip the audience to be honest about its feelings about what it experiences in the theatre and in the soul.
 
And those are the experiences of loneliness and comfort, sexual need and fulfillment, commitment and passion, self-worth and self-doubt, fantasy and experience.  Part of the reason Angel and Tony are hustling is that they aren't loved in ways they need to be loved in their "normal" relationships.  As disturbing as it is for Angel to show affection to one of his clients (he'd rather they just service him and leave), he knows on some level that the needs of his clients transcend mere horniness and dip somewhere deep into the mire of human longing which knows no sexual identity and no societal norm.
 
Director Dudley Findlay, Jr. stages Lugo's play with considerable skill, carefully maintaining the balance between the script's pathos and it's almost broad comedy, never permitting the activity on stage to wander too far into self-pity or gratuitous gags.  There is very little mugging here and a good deal of skilled acting.  Indio Melendez is a sweet and vulnerable Angel who just wants his life to begin to make some sense.  Melendez could sell a scuba outfit to a person scared to death of water!  Marilyn T. is a powerful presence as Angel's girlfriend Marlena.  Marilyn has the ability to present her character's emotional life with an honesty and integrity that deeply affects the audence member.  Her Marlena is confused, in love, doing all she can to better herself in a sexist, racist society which would prefer she "know her place and keep it."  Will Sierra gives us a Tony that is hard outside and tender inside.  His Tony wants so much to be loved and accepted.  Because he has difficulty with intimacy, Tony hustles and keeps his emotional distance from his johns.  Something tells him he should want to be with Ileana, but his heart tells him he loves his childhood buddy Angel.  Sierra portrays this passion with sustained focus and considerable presence.  Unfortunately, Iris Aay's Ileana is not able to stand up to the other actors and their characters.  She may look the role, but for some reason she is not able to give us the heart and soul of Ileana, particularly in the important scenes with Marlena.  Andre Rodriguez delivers the goods as barkeep Jose.  Acting as the conscience for all who enter La Belle Vie, Jose dances, spins, cleans, hugs and admonishes his way into every patron's heart, especially into the hearts of Angel and Tony whom he mothers with tenderness and unconditional love.  Playing a host of characters, Alfonso Madrid, Stephen Beckford, and Victor M. Rosado are the eyes and ears, the spirits of the members of the audience.  With them we ask, in Emanuel Xavier's words, "So wha'cha, wha'cha, wha'cha want?"
 
Lugo's characters want to find a way out of poverty.  They want to love and be loved unconditionally and without judgement.  They want to find a way out of powerlessness and disenfranchisement.  They want their children to claim a space in the new millennium which they themselves were never able to occupy, a space of peace with love and with justice.  A. B. Lugo's script is powerful.  Sometimes Lugo needs to trust himself more.  For example, the "good-bye" scene is much too long and really gives the audience nothing it doesn't already know (or surmise) from the previous tightly written script.   Lugo pushes us beyond stereotype and expectation and leads us into the important area of self-discovery and self-acceptance.

"Banjee" is a true urban drama and deserves your attention.  Please see this wonderful play before its scheduled June 6th close. 

Reviewed on Sunday, May 16, 1999 (Opening Night)

"BANJEE"
 
By A. B. Lugo.  Directed by Dudley Findlay, Jr.  Scenic design by Dudley Findlay, Jr.; costume consultant, Will Sierra; lighting design by Darren W. McCroom; sound design by Jerel Black; choreography by Thomas C. Adams; production stage manager, K. A. Jones.  Presented by the Milagro Theatre Company/Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center (Edgardo Vega Yunque, President), All Out Arts and Alphabeta Productions at the Milagro Theatre/Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk Street between Irvington and Delancey Streets in Lower Manhattan.  Admission is $12.00 and discounts are available for students, seniors, and PWAs.  Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. through Sunday, June 6.  For tickets and further information please call 212-260-4080, Extension 19.

WITH: Iris Aay (Ileana), Stephen Beckford (Bouncer, John, Businessman, Second John, Barfly, Bar Patron), Alfonso Madrid (Rafael, Bar Patron), Indio Melendez (Angel), Andre Rodriguez (Jose), Victor M. Rosado (Go Go Dancer, Cokehead, Poconos Guy, Dealer, Enrique, Hustler, Bar Patron), Will Sierra (Tony), and Marilyn T. (Marlena).

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