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Welcome to Arroyo's
Sometimes you can believe the hype. Diaz, 32, fresh from a Pulitzer nomination for The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, returns with a hip-hop–flavored look at the Lower East Side. Arroyo’s echoes Deity’s metatheatrical high jinks and inspired pop-culture riffing but with a richer tonal palette: more Jackie Brown than Pulp Fiction. Centering on newly orphaned siblings Alejandro Arroyo (Minoso), striving obsessively to turn his mother’s bodega into a successful lounge, and little sister Amalia, or Molly (Nieves), a fiery graffiti artist, the play blends streetwise exuberance with deep melancholy undercurrents.
Diaz offers something for the different audiences within each of us. The inner grad student can track the theme of perception: Much hinges on whether an old photograph depicts the late Mrs. Arroyo, while Molly, rookie cop Derek Jeter and nerdy hip-hop researcher Lelly Santiago (an affecting turn by Rifai) all ponder how their names shape others’ views of them. For the less high-minded, there’s goofy interplay between DJs Trip and Nelson: “We’re the chorus,” they helpfully announce.
Arroyo’s has its imperfections. A romantic subplot between Molly and Officer Jeter, for instance, never stops seeming contrived. But Castañeda’s sensitive, often hilarious production gives this deceptively wise play the debut it deserves. Channeling Afrika Bambaataa, Lelly reminds Molly that graffiti forms one of the four pillars of hip-hop (along with deejaying, emceeing and break-dancing). Thanks to Diaz and ATC, it’s not so crazy to imagine theater as the fifth.
