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Over the past three years, South Bay playwright Salomón Maya has premiered three similarly named plays at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. “Mugre,” in 2023, was about a group of Latino men from different generations and backgrounds learning how to relate to one another.
“Masa,” in 2024, was about a family in Mexico City struggling to emotionally reconnect after a deadly earthquake. And now in production is “Mensa,” a story about a bright and gentle-natured teenage girl trying to come to terms with her parents’ lucrative, but extremist, right-wing podcast.
All three plays share Maya’s signature style of blazing-fast dialogue, crackling humor, occasional lines spoken in Spanish and a quick wrap-up in under two hours. And all three plays are in some way about how humans communicate.
Or, in the case of “Mensa,” how they fail to communicate, and the consequences of those actions. “Mensa,” which has a ripped-from-the-headlines urgency about it, is the strongest of the three plays.
But its second act still needs some tinkering.
Isabella Turner delivers a sweet, luminous and understated performance as Esther, a 18-year-old California math whiz who aims to solve the famously unsolvable Rie mann Hypothesis of mathematics and become a member of Mensa, the global society for geniuses.
When she’s not studying scientific principles of order, reason and logic, she’s trying to make sense of “The Ray Wright Show,” the rage-baiting, conspiracy theory-filled podcast run by her parents, David and Valentina.
Alex Chernow gives an outstanding performance as the dual personalities of David, a soft-spoken and loving father and husband, and his fabricated on-air alter ego Ray Wright, whose cruel mile-a-minute tirades against liberals, women, trans people, immigrants, etc., have an almost musical quality to them.
And Cristina Gallo is fierce, controlling and emotionally remote as Valentina, David’s Mexican American wife and show producer, who obsessively counts each listener, social media comment, sponsor dollar and “Ray Wright Bible” sale as a sign of her success as a businesswoman, if not a wife and mother.
But their daughter Esther’s preferred podcaster is the little-known Sophia of “Sophia Speaks.” Played with nuance and gentleness by Larissa Ryan, Sophia is an idealistic, soft-spoken Austin-based progressive with an Obama “Hope” poster on her wall, a degree from Princeton and a pile of unpaid bills.
Sophia tells her small, liberal audience that she’s frustrated that Americans siloed in their political echo chambers have lost the ability to agree on anything, so Esther suggests that her parents bring Sophia on the Ray Wright podcast for a live debate.
Esther wants to help Sophia reach more ears and to help her conflicted dad move more of his listeners to the middle, politically. Valentina likes only the money and listenership the debate will generate.
And David is intrigued at the idea of talking to someone other than his rabid fans, like recent Ray Wright Bible-buyer “ProudBoy69.” Esther hopes that reason and kindness will prevail during the debate. Instead old habits, suspicions, anger and betrayal reign on both sides.
Each character in the play has a hidden side and secrets are unveiled in the second act. To say any more would spoil the surprise-packed finale.
The production has a terrific and beautifully detailed, multilevel, three-room scenic design by Patrick Mason, with costumes by Brad Dubois, lighting by Ginger Chody and sound by Jaden Guerrero. The play runs just under two hours, with intermission.
The first act has a nice arc to it and it sets u p the rest of the play well. But the second act needs some more development.
Esther’s sudden fortune and failure — which arrives via mail in two envelopes on the same day — is unrealistic, and her story isn’t resolved in a satisfactory way at the end. Valentina’s change of heart about transforming the podcast also feels too sudden.
There’s no magic equation for solving the political division in this country. Nor is there an easy fix in “Mensa.” But maybe the play will spark conversations before it’s too late.
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 5 p.m.
Sundays. Through Sept.
13.
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