Theater review: Mu Performing Arts' 'Magno Rubio' has a lot of heart
By Quinton Skinner
Special to the Pioneer Press
Updated: 09/06/2009 09:19:43 PM CDT

The yearning for connection and a union between our inner worlds and reality at large can be a drive that elicits the most noble within us. That, or it can turn us into fools. In Mu Performing Arts' "The Romance of Magno Rubio," the results are chiefly of the unfortunate variety, but it's a work of such heart that the result is intense compassion rather than pity or mockery.

Our titular hero, Magno (Randy Reyes), is a Filipino migrant farm worker in California in the 1930s, resigned to a life of seemingly endless toil and the setting of the bunkhouse in which he and his compatriots play cards, swap barbs and generally fail to fend off the meaninglessness.

Magno, described in playwright Lonnie Carter's script as a slight, filthy nebbish, responds to the era's equivalent of a personals ad and begins correspondence with a robust blonde in Arkansas. Illiterate, he enlists the kindly Nick (Curt Kwan) to help him write letters to further his head-over-heels condition.

The five-man cast is uniformly vivid, each carving out distinctive portrayals, and director Orlando Pabotoy has his foot on the accelerator throughout. (Pabotoy originated the role of Magno as an actor in 2002, and his familiarity with the work seems to fuel the taut yet harnessed energy of his cast.)

Magno's primary antagonist is Claro (Sherwin Resurreccion), routinely intent on dashing Magno's hopes, or interfering with them, or generally applying a sneer in the face of daft hope. Reyes dials back on his considerable comedic charm, going for a performance that underscores his character's longing and the painful ridiculousness beneath.

Dreams sustain farm workers in Mu show

A stellar production of "Magno Rubio" by Mu Performing Arts shows another side of the talent of Randy Reyes.

If Shakespeare's rude mechanicals were a bunch of migrant workers whose lives were dictated by the ripening of crops up and down California, they would resemble the Filipino pickers in Lonnie Carter's "The Romance of Magno Rubio," which opened over the weekend in Minneapolis.

Ribald, raunchy and full of mother wit, these flea-bitten men live in a world whose rhythms derive from the seasons. Cut off from family, they escape their grubby circumstances through folk songs and jokes, drink and gambling. They also have their own dreams in this play based on a short story by Filipino American writer Carlos Bulosan and set in the 1930s.

Claro (Sherwin Resurreccion) plans to leave the farm fields to go pan for gold. Nick (Kurt Kwan) seeks the school route. Magno (Randy Reyes) is the ultimate dreamer in their bunkhouse. While the men -- the group includes cook Prudencio (Arnold Felizardo) and instigator Atoy (Eric Sumangil) -- pursue goals that seem farfetched in their circumstances but are still rooted in the world, Magno, who barely speaks English, fights for love based in fiction.

He thinks he has found a mate through a lonely-hearts ad. Clarabelle is a six-foot blonde who lives in Arkansas, but she loves and wants to marry Magno, who is four-foot-six. At least, that's what she professes in letters. In the meantime -- a period that extends to years -- could he send her some money to help meet the needs of her ailing mother and younger siblings?

In his excellent production for Mu Performing Arts production at Mixed Blood Theatre, director Orlando Pabotoy, a member of the original cast of this 2002 Obie-winning play, conjures a haunting world of heartsickness and cultural authenticity.