Ana Miramontes as Mariana and Mabel Thomas as Jenny in “Laughs in Spanish” at Horizon Theatre. (All photos by Greg Mooney)
It’s billed as a comedy, and Horizon Theatre’s new Laughs in Spanish certainly does what it can to make its audience chuckle. Ironically, though, it’s the dramatic moments of the work that are more memorable in this well-meaning but uneven production closing out the Little Five Points company’s 40th season.
Running through June 22, Laughs in Spanish is the latest work from playwright Alexis Scheer, perhaps best known for her off-Broadway hit Our Dear Dead Drug Lord. Laughs in Spanish premiered at Denver Center’s Singleton Theatre a few years ago and is getting plenty of 2025 stagings.
As the show opens, it’s time for Art Basel (an international art fair held at various locations around the world), and Mariana/Mari (Ana Miramontes) is running a gallery in the Wynwood Arts District in Miami. Her plans for a splashy opening evening take a hit when the paintings to be displayed are stolen overnight. Mariana blames her intern, Carolina/Caro (Lorena Guillen Castillo), for not locking up, and soon, Caro’s policeman boyfriend Juan (Marcello Audino) is investigating.
Lorena Guillen Castillo as Carolina, left, and Marcello Audino as Juan.
Making matters more complicated is the arrival of Mariana’s mother, Estella (Denise Arribas), a well-known movie star. Along with Estella is her assistant Jenny (Mabel Thomas), who has known Mariana for a while and is a former love interest.
Caro and Juan are having their own issues. She is pregnant and trying to be taken seriously as an artist while she is getting her MFA in painting, and Juan is unhappy that she will not marry him.
The matter of who stole the art is not much of a whodunit after a while; the issue is dropped pretty quickly, and it gives Caro an opportunity to show some of her own work, although Marina is initially skeptical.
Arribas, in her curtain speech before the performance, mentions that the show is about Latina joy and mother-daughter relationships. Much of Laughs in Spanish is indeed presented in broad strokes, with some silly and easy jokes. Juan quips early in the show, for example, that lost art is a white person’s crime, and that he won’t have to break much of a sweat solving it.
Some of this really works, but the tone is all over the place. It’s a play that is fast-paced and comedic one moment, then awkwardly becomes more serious. It’s very much like a telenovela with a happy ending, where situations are resolved a little too easily.
Denise Arribas is a standout as Estella.
Atlanta-based Erika Miranda directs and is a former Horizon Theatre Apprentice alumni, as well as the founder of the local Cafecito Productions. The first executive producer of SheATL, she grew up in Miami, and her work here is told through a distinct Latin lens. It seems to be personal material. Miranda very much sees herself as a Mariana, having problems with expressing her own feelings to her mother.
Estella is by far the most interesting person on stage, and Arribas finds the character’s many layers. She enjoys being recognized by others and stops often to take selfies of herself. She’s so much in demand that even Steven Spielberg is chasing her down. Yet, Estella is not visiting just for a reunion — she has a rather urgent request for her daughter, leading to Miramontes and Arribas excelling in some effective scenes rehashing their past. Estella has never really approved of her daughter’s love life, and a lot of unresolved tension hangs in the air.
The performances are all agreeable, though Miramontes is a little too exaggerated in the early stages. She and Thomas have believable chemistry as the two come back into each other’s lives.
At just around 90 minutes, the play could use more character development and more of that intriguing mother-daughter relationship. There’s something of a breakthrough moment as Estella performs unexpectedly at the revamped art gallery — but the play yells out for more heft. Estella’s secret could use a little more clarity.
Laughs in Spanish is something of a disappointment in an otherwise rousing Horizon season, including a remount of the popular Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 and the sensational Carolyn Cook one-person show I Carry Your Heart with Me. This production provides its advertised humor, but it could cut a whole lot deeper.
Where & When
Laughs in Spanish is at Horizon Theatre through June 22. Tickets start at $35.
1083 Austin Ave.
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Jim Farmer is the recipient of the 2022 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Theatre Feature and a nominee for Online Journalist of the Year. A member of five national critics’ organizations, he covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, and lives in Avondale Estates with his husband, Craig.
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