LA THEATRE REVIEW: FRINGE DAY SIX

Honor & Fidelity: The Ballad of a Borinqueneer

Honor and Fidelity: The Ballad of a Borinqueneer

by Tracey Paleo~

So vibrant, so passionate and so complete in love and remembrance. Tanya Perez is captivating and vivacious in her one woman show, Honor and Fidelity, dedicated to her Puerto Rican family history.

What begins as a vehement pleading with an airline agent to educe late boarding on a flight to her parents’ home-land, becomes, all at once, a rapturous, melodic, tale of music, memories, love, loss and reconciliation.

Honor and Fidelity is completely unique in its multi-dimensional presentation featuring, on screen imagery and live music, gently and beautifully played by the talented Carlos Cuestas hailing from Bogota, Columbia via the concert halls of Alice Tully and Avery Fisher of New York City.

This performance had me often in tears of joy and sadness reliving the memories of visits to Old San Juan, listening to the soft dialect of elders recounting days gone by, lively dance and eating rice and beans at The Hibero. Ms. Perez is powerful and spontaneous, a theatrical delight in every way in her portrayals of her mother and father, her grandfather, his optimistic military buddy and especially of her grandmother, falling in love and living out pain over the extraordinary and beautiful man of her dreams, after his service in the 65th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army changes him.

Enough cannot be said about this offering except that you make it a point to share a journey you will not regret.

Playing at the Fringe Mainstage: 6/22 @6:30pm and 8:00pm; 6/24 @10:00pm; 6/25 @1:30pm