Based on some walkouts and overheard elevator chatter, it’s clear that “Baipás,” a brief, stylistic, and thorough study of those everyday concerns of life and death will elicit a polar — love it or hate it — response from George Street Playhouse audiences.
Count me on the “love” side. Going farther, count me as an admirer of Jacobo Morales’s play that ricochets shrewdly from one significant life passage to another, although less in logical order than as individual incidents and memories occur to “Baipás’s” pair of intelligent, probing characters.
And add admiration for Julio Monge’s silky, sensitive direction that caroms tellingly from the sensuous to the Chaplinesque.
“Baipás” — or bypass — is set in a kind of adult limbo where a man and a woman, who ironically once shared a telephone conversation, meet on the way to either eternity or recovery from critical medical emergencies that we learn were self-inflicted.
Seemingly trapped in Wilson Chin’s hermetic rectangle set, creatively lit by Jason Lyons to invoke moods and enhanced with salient projected images by Caite Hevner, are Morales’s characters: Lorena (performed by Maggie Boffill), who deals in fashion and culture, and Antonio (Jorge Luna), a famous lawyer and Puerto Rican politician.
It is here they discuss details of their lives and facets of life in general as they figure out where they are, await their fate, see visions of their pasts, and form a relationship that, in sequence, mirrors the highs and lows, steaminess and coolness, intimacy and modesty of a romance.
Lorena and Antonio wonder at first if they are in a patient’s waiting room because each has been admitted to a Puerto Rican hospital with conditions that could yield a fatal outcome. Lorena has taken too many pills in an act of suicide. Antonio was about to hang himself but was prevented by a massive heart attack that puts his survival in question.
Throughout “Baipás,” Germán Martinez’s sound design lets you hear moments of Lorena’s treatment, such as when she is injected with adrenaline or given shock therapy, and remain aware of Antonio’s surgery by monitoring his heartbeat or absence of it.
As the two teeter in anxiety and uncertainty about the outcomes of their operations, they explain what led them to each wanting to end their lives while considering some of the more joyous, adventurous, thrilling, or parental aspects that cause them to alternatively regret or affirm their decisions.
The scope of “Baipás” fascinates and, at times, becomes exhilarating, particularly when you come to appreciate the insight with which Morales endows Lorena and Antonio. Each has an active mind that, in the prism of waning life and possibly imminent death, seizes on experiences and episodes that illuminate life in general.
“Baipás” evolves as the characters share more about each other and become more personal and revealing in exchanges that percolate with wit, perception, and ultimate humanity.
We become accustomed to Morales’s use of Lorena and Antonio acknowledging they are being watched and admonishing the audience for not helping them find a way out of their stifling rectangle. We become more involved as we realize the pair looks towards the audience and recognizes people from their lives. It’s as if their lives were replaying before them, as some say happens in the minutes before death.
Perhaps most engaging is Lorena and Antonio’s growing attraction for one another, a mutual feeling that seems to stimulate Antonio’s pulse at crucial intervals and give Lorena new resolve that encourages her to want another chance to face life.
As sequences unfold and topics arise, “Baipás” ranges from the romantic to the philosophical, from the mundane to the extraordinary, from the serious to the comic, and from the personal to the universal. Morales is canny about introducing a new thread or consideration when you think all had been covered. Monge is a master of flow and timing so “Baipás,” once its bearings are established, invites one to attend closely to Lorena and Antonio as they experience what might be their final journey in eventful lives.
Monge is billed as choreographer as well as director. In some ways, “Baipás” seems completely choreographed, a Jules Feifferish dance of life insistently inspiring against the potential onset of death.
Dance figures into the production in several ways. Two sequences stand out, one in which Lorena and Antonio celebrate their emerging bond with a lovely, and lively bolero, Lorena’s favorite, and another in which Monge has his characters move in stylized motion that resembles and elicits the simultaneous comedy and pathos, suggesting the grace and precariousness of life as the characters wonder whether they or fate will have the last laugh.
Morales and Monge set a framework, but George Street’s production of “Baipás” derives its delight from the versatile, resourceful performances of Maggie Boffill and Jorge Luna, each of whom can convey thoughts, emotions, and comments on a dime.
Any idea Morales broaches, any pivot Monge chooses to make, actors Boffill and Luna move right along with them to keep the range and intelligence of “Baipás” bubbling.
Boffill and Luna convey the surface reality of their characters while revealing their inner strength and depth. Each is called upon to show the multiple aspects of his or her character and succeeds unerringly in doing so.
Boffill’s Lorena is an inquisitive ball of fire who moves swiftly between moods and ideas. Her roller coaster of emotions is leavened by a keen sense of humor and quick ability to comment, including to put Antonio in his place, that Boffill plays just right to make Lorena a nervous wreck, a spontaneous curious soul, and a life force.
Boffill makes Lorena fun. She is often the life of the party because Boffill gives her the personality to be.
Luna’s Antonio is the ready politician, eager to shake hands, make an impression, and show his skills. He shows Antonio as the kind of guy who is accustomed to being immediately liked and welcomed into any group.
Revelation comes when Luna exposes Antonio’s more vulnerable side that includes fears and a desire to escape what isn’t perfect or goes against the image he’s cultivated in the courtroom and in public office.
Boffill and Luna can both be engagingly playful and sultrily romantic. They are as complete in their portrayals as Morales is in his script and Monge in his inventiveness.
Chin’s set is remarkable for its confining feeling that includes an airiness that suggests possible escape. Martinez supplies more than moans and heartbeats as he makes the characters’ limbo a palpable world. Harry Nadal’s costumes suit the characters and give leeway for elegance and sensuality.
Baipás, George Street Playhouse, Arthur Laurents Theater, New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, 11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. Through Sunday, March 20, Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m., and Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, 2 p.m. $25 to $70, 732-246-7717 or www.georgestreetplayhouse.org.
