SPEAKING IN TONGUES
A Jewish girl and a Hindu girl walk into a show about a Pentecostal church, and…we really enjoyed it! My friend Gigi and I didn’t understand much of the religious aspect of Speaking In Tongues, but we didn’t need to because the rest of the show is very funny. Any show that can make me laugh, (along with Gigi and the rest of the audience,) is worth seeing, in my book.
Sal López on the deck and Geoffrey Rivas on the roof. Photo by Grettel Cortes, as is the one above.
In case you’ve never been to anything at the Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC,) I’m here to walk you through the experience. It’s a good-sized building in downtown LA which houses a handful of theatres of varying sizes. There’s a giant communal lobby, which is wonderful for pre-and-post-show mingling. I believe that Latino Theater Company, which runs the facility, produces the most plays there.
Speaking In Tongues is in a theatre on the lower level. (But don’t worry if you have knee issues, as I do—there’s an elevator.) It’s “arena-style” seating, and very steep. (So choose your seats at the top if you don’t like steps. Those are the best to take in the entire tableau, anyway.)
As soon as we entered the space, both Gigi and I were wowed by the uber-creative set by Prairie T. Trivuth. It depicts the outside area in front of the church, and on top is a…cornfield!!! That was unexpected. And the dramatic parts are highlighted with really good lighting designs by Xinyuan Li.
The set, from the top of the arena seating, with director Jose Luis Valenzuela greeting the audience. Photo by Karen Salkin.
Possibly because I was honestly exhausted on Opening Night, (which means that I was happy to see a show that’s only seventy-five minutes long!,) I’m not exactly sure what the actual narrative of the play is. I never read descriptions before I see a show, in order to discover it for myself, but I later learned that the tale is that the pastor of this church in predominantly Mexican-American San Joaquin Valley, (the program does not list a setting or time,) had disappeared, and I guess his wife and a few others are deciding what to do about continuing the congregation. Or something like that. So I’m sure there’s some deeper meaning to the script than what I understood.
But I swear, my nescience, (and possibly your own,) does not matter to one’s enjoyment of the show in the slightest; the writing in Speaking In Tongues is so clever that I looked forward to each next line! Here’s one of my favorites: One man mentions a “rave,” so the other one asks him what a “rave” is. (They’re both senior citizens.) That first one answers, “A rave is a party that takes the souls away from young people.” That one is amusing enough, (and pretty true, which I can say as a former club promoter,) but then the second guy quickly declares, “I thought that was Coachella!” Ba dum bum.
(L-R) Geoffrey Rivas, Lucy Rodríguez, and Sal López. Photo by Grettel Cortes.
As I said, I did not understand the religious elements, but I totally appreciated the journey. And though the story is of a way different religion than mine, much of the situation is universal. A theme of too many potato salads could be about my own people’s events as much as it is about those of these Pentecostals! And I finally realized that “The First 48” that they keep referencing is a Dateline-esque TV show, not some religious ritual. As a crime show junkie, I was totally down with all that.
All of the actors are excellent. I had seen four of the quintet, (Sal López, Geoffrey Rivas, Lucy Rodriguez, and Evelina Fernández,) together here three years ago in Whittier Boulevard. (And gave it a great review, which you can still read here if you like: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/theatre-whittier-boulevard.) And I’m now a fan of the beautiful voice of Esperanza América, who was new to me. She sings hauntingly throughout the show.
There’s a special interesting feature of Speaking In Tongues, which I don’t know if this company does in all of their productions. Gigi and my reactions to it are two-fold. All the lines are superimposed in Spanish on part of the front of the stage. I’m sure they do it for their Spanish-only-speaking audiences, but I took it as educational—I always want to speak/understand that language much better than I do. So I found it to be both interesting and distracting at the same time, while Gigi said it was only distracting to her.
Evelina Fernández above and Esperanza América in the center.
Photo by Grettel Cortes.
As unknowledgeable as I am about this particular religion and culture, I realized afterwards that I had a lot in common with a few of the creatives of this production. At the Opening Night reception, playwright Luis Alfaro and I got to share reminiscences about our mutual good friend, the late Founding Artistic Director of the Center Theatre Group, Gordon Davidson. And I read that Esperanza América received her B.A. from the UCLA School of Theater, which Mr. X and I also attended. (Mr. X went there for his MFA, but his acting career took off a few credits short, so he had to forego that degree, and I also took theatre classes while I was a dance major. Gigi went there, as well, getting her B.A. in Psychology, which might explain how she can be friends with me!) And I noticed that male understudy J.Ed Araiza is a professor in that department! So a big shout-out to UCLA, from all of us Bruins!
Speaking In Tongues running through November 15, 2026
LATC 514 S. Spring Street, DTLA
www.latinotheaterco.org
