VERONICA GONMIAH
Courtney Corso-Casiano and Carlos Ibarra co-star in “Fade” at The Vanguard Theater in Montclair.
After entering her new office for the first time, Lucia — one of the characters in Tanya Saracho’s play “Fade,” currently being presented at The Vanguard Theater in Montclair — hangs a picture on the wall. It is a large photo of the cover of her first and only novel, titled “The Definitive Guide to Nothing.”
Lucia, played here by Courtney Corso-Casiano, could use such a guide herself, since “nothing” is a pretty good description of what is going on in her life right now. The novel was a success, but her work on a followup has stalled. (“I don’t ‘write novels’ — not in the plural sense,” she jokes.) She has moved from Chicago to Los Angeles to take this job, writing for a TV show she doesn’t even like. (We hear snippets of it, at various points in the play, and, yes, it’s pretty ghastly.)
She is Mexican-American, and the only non-white, non-male member of the show’s writing staff. Her good old boy co-workers, she says, regard her as a DEI hire, and have no respect for her as a writer.
She doesn’t know anyone in L.A., and so has nothing much to do except obsess over this new job she hates, and its cutthroat office politics. “What this place could do to you!” she says. “It could suck out your soul (and) sell it to the Devil for a good parking spot.”
But this engaging two-character play — which has some humorous moments but ultimately paints a rather nightmarish picture of modern life — is not primarily about Lucia’s professional struggles. It is about Lucia’s (platonic) relationship with a member of the building’s janitorial staff, Abel (Carlos Ibarra).
DAVID HEGUY
Courtney Corso-Casiano in “Fade.”
He is also Mexican-American, and approximately the same age. But these two are not exactly kindred spirits.
Lucia, who was born in Mexico, appears to have a certain amount of wealth and privilege in her background. Abel uses the word fresa to describe her — “rich and pampered,” more or less — and though Lucia recoils at being seen that way, we suspect there is some truth to it.
Abel was born and raised in the East Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno, has worked as a firefighter, and served in the Marines. He is smart and sensitive, but seems happy just to have his menial job, and does not appear to be aspiring to move beyond it.
As director Dana Iannuzzi writes in the show’s program, “This play shows us two people who for all intents and purposes come from the same place and they couldn’t be more different, and their choices are to learn from one another and change for the better or the worse.”
Lucia and Abel get off on the wrong foot in the first scene when Lucia assumes he can speak only Spanish, and addresses him repeatedly in that language, not noticing that he is seething. Many other awkward moments that follow show that these two are making all kinds of false assumptions about each other — just as others make false assumptions about them. And though these two lonely souls — who both see themselves as outsiders in this soulless corporate environment — do eventually build something of a bond, based partially on their shared cultural experiences, Lucia’s condescension is persistent, as is Abel’s resentfulness.
Though we want to like Lucia — to root for her as an underdog fighting against the racist, sexist system — her narcissism is off-putting. And Abel never really loses that chip on his shoulder.
KYLE WATKINS
Carlos Ibarra in “Fade.”
The strain in the relationship threatens to reach a breaking point when Lucia realizes that Abel can help her professionally: She is having trouble making one of the TV show’s characters, who has a rough past, believable, and decides to base him on Abel. She does so with no consideration of Abel’s wishes or feelings, and the fact that she tries to hide what she is doing shows that she knows he would be hurt by it.
Saracho doesn’t pull any punches. The play’s ending isn’t exactly tragic, but it’s not unrealistically hopeful, either.
The play, which premiered in 2016, contains several references to Donald Trump, and seems even more timely now, when, if anything, tensions over racial and immigration issues have become even more intense. “You and me, we are knee deep in the shit soup that is Trump’s America,” Lucia tells Abel. “All that progress made with Obama? Put it out of your head.”
Set designer Rodrigo Escalante has created an appropriately anonymous office for Lucia to arrive in, in scene one. Cleverly, elements of warmth and style are added to the office, as the weeks go by, and Lucia gets more comfortable in her job.
Is she really getting ahead, though, or just selling out? And can she even tell the difference anymore?
The Vanguard Theater Company will present “Fade” at The Vanguard Theater in Montclair through April 13. Visit vanguardtheatercompany.org.
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