Gina Fonseca, Mikayla Queeley, Rachel Eddy and Sofia Duemichen try to summon the spirit of Pablo Escobar in Zoetic Stage's "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord." (Photo by Justin Namon)
While Alexis Scheer’s riveting, unflinching, and humorous play "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord" has a title that may conjure a fright fest for Halloween, its themes run deeper.
The incisive play possesses enough substance to qualify as a mind-exercising meditation on topics such as censorship, criminal glorification, the awkward and rebellious teen years, belief, and imagination.
This much is certain – the teenage girls who populate the play do not take their séance lightly. In fact, they prepare for it and conduct it with the solemnity of the deeply religious performing a sacred ritual during the year’s holiest day.
In "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord," which Miami’s Zoetic Stage is giving a remarkable Florida premiere production through May 22, the séance is essentially a primal cry from youth living in the not-too-distant past. Perhaps the girls are trying to bring notice to themselves by summoning the spirit of Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar (1949-1993). Why him?
“Pablo is it. Pablo is prime. He’s ruthless, and plus, he’s really f—king sexy,” one of the girls explains.
Mikayla Queeley, Rachel Eddy and Sofia Duemichen appear in a scene from "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord." (Photo by Justin Namon)
These teens, living in 2008 in Miami, belong to a group called “The Dead Leaders Club” (DLC). They meet in the treehouse they've been hanging out in since childhood to talk and perform their séance.
“The DLC has a long-standing history at this school, having been founded in 1964 to celebrate and focus study on John F. Kennedy,” one character explains. “Every semester since, the DLC has picked a famous dead leader to focus on in efforts to deepen our collective knowledge about the world’s most influential people. I decided to change the scope of what we do by picking leaders with a more controversial stake in history.”
With that in mind, it makes sense that the girls are upset that their school suspended their club. They feel it is censorship, a topic that resonates today, 14 years after this play takes place.
However, the playwright is not out to preach. Rather, she has written this play as part-thriller, part-satire on glorifying criminals and the extremes teens sometimes will go to make themselves heard. Scheer sometimes veers into the absurd. Case in point, one of the girls, who mysteriously becomes pregnant.
“I’m a pregnant virgin,” she says sarcastically. “Move over Mary, this b—tch is ready to be canonized.
"Our Dear Dead Drug Lord" does not contain a traditional plot. Rather, it consists of scenes taking place before, during, and after a séance. During the first half of the play, the piece sounds like a familiar one about the drama and trials and tribulations that come with being a teenage girl.
Such a subject is not new in theater; several playwrights have tackled this type of theme in plays such as "The Wolves," "Dance Nation", and "School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play." Scheer says "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord" is "Mean Girls" meets "Narcos."
However, Scheer makes her play amusing and different by creating characters who are dead serious (no pun intended) about their séance. And by writing the characters who are so earnest and intense about their activity, that's where the play finds its comedy.
“Rituals matter. You can’t just rush these things,” one of the characters says.
During other moments, with the concentration of a surgeon, they perform actions that the easily queasy may have trouble hearing and seeing (nothing is too graphic). And, at times, they sound as hysterical as the accusing girls in Arthur Miller’s classic play, "The Crucible."
The girls in Scheer’s play are rowdy, rambunctious, wisecracking, defiant, and grave. They are also varied.
Rachel Eddy, Gina Fonseca, Mikayla Queeley and Sofia Duemichen rehearse a tribute dance in Zoetic Stage's production of Alexis Scheer's "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord." (Photo by Justin Namon)
While we do not learn their real names, an Ouija board spells out the nicknames they use throughout the course of the play, as though they were gang members.
There is Pipe, the 18-year-old Cuban-American current president of the DLC. She is one of the most serious characters. Her sister's drowning helps motivate her to conduct the séance.
There is also 17-year-old Kit, the club’s newest member and the daughter of a Colombian single mother. Ironically, Kit was also the name of Pipe’s dead sister and a former club comrade. Is the new Kit the old Kit’s ghost? Then there is Zoom, Pipe’s next-door neighbor, a 15-year-old Jewish-American.
In addition, there is Squeeze, Pipe’s best friend, a 16-year-old Puerto Rican on her mom’s side and Haitian on her father’s side.
Clearly, from the dialogue, Scheer possesses a keen ear for the way teenage girls sometimes talk. In one of these characters, you may recognize a teenager in your life.
Zoetic Stage, a professional, nonprofit, multi-award-winning company, has mounted yet another winner with its impressively naturalistic production of "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord." In fact, the acting is so believable that you may think you are watching a documentary. It is not an understatement to say that the performers are putting on a master class in acting.
Sofia Duemichen, Mikayla Queeley and Rachel Eddy ponder something in Zoetic Stage's "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord." (Photo by Justin Namon)
Sofia Duemichen constantly commands the stage as Pipe, playing her as a natural, if sometimes bossy and intense leader.
Also, Rachel Eddy playfully portrays Zoom as a drama queen type who is also funny and excitable.
Meanwhile, Gina Fonseca conveys a seductive and intimidating coolness as Kit. And Mikayla Queeley’s mild-mannered, practical Squeeze contrasts with the more intense characters.
The actors easily pass for teenagers, even if they are a bit older.
There are surprises in store for the audience involving characters, but it wouldn't be fair to reveal those twists here.
Jodi Dellaventura designed the impressively detailed set which, if you consider it, resembles a tree’s structure. Foliage snakes out from below a raised wooden platform that serves as the stage. Downstage is spacious, giving the actors plenty of room to move. Farther upstage are objects that you might find in a teenage girl’s room. The colors include pink and purple. Hanging from above is a ladder-like structure that one might assume is the top of the tree.
Tony Galaska’s lighting deftly creates realistic and non-realistic auras, while Marina Pareja’s costumes help to define character.
Sound designer Matt Corey’s fine work includes intense, foreboding drumming that we hear in between scenes. These sounds reinforce the tension in the piece.
Co-directors Stuart Meltzer and Elena Maria Garcia help the performers achieve deft comic timing. Also, under their guidance, the performers "play intense" without overacting.
Yet, there are times that "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord" gets too caught up in its own absurdity. But the play offers a fun, thrilling ride, and has a way of making us look past that and ponder its many messages.
Zoetic Stage at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord" runs through May 22 in the Arsht’s intimate Carnival Studio Theater, 1300 Biscayne Blvd. in Miami. For showtimes and tickets, go to www.zoeticstage.org
