STAGE REVIEW : Zest for Life Flows as ‘Celso’ Walks the Edge

He’s just an old drunk, living in an old shack at the outskirts of a small New Mexico village. But what stories Celso tells.

A connoisseur of moonlight and an imbiber of moonshine, he segues from talk of dancing with moonlight to talk of the dead, who have no eyes, crying through his; to the women he loved--but not enough; to the children he wishes and thinks he may have--but he’s not quite sure.

But don’t feel sorry for him. “I Am Celso,” a one-man show at the Kingston Playhouse through July 15, is a raucous affirmation of life from one who would not deny that in many ways, he has failed at life.

It’s also an auspicious start for Teatro Mascara Magica, San Diego’s new professional Latino theater, in its debut show, done in a co-production with the Bowery Theatre.

Like Cher, Celso needs no second name--you are not likely to confuse him with anyone else. Though he may suggest a cross between Zorba the Greek and Charles Bukowski, Celso, drawn from the poems of Leo Romero by adapters Jorge Huerta (who doubles as director) and Ruben Sierra (who doubles as star), is inimitably his own. No apologies. No excuses. A minimum of sentimentality.

Maybe Celso and Zorba share a love of dancing and maybe Celso and Bukowski share a reverence for the Gospel of the Holy Grape, as Celso puts it. But finding a way to profit from a priest’s accidental drowning (he sells the water where he disappeared for 50 cents a bucket) is the mark of a trickster who is so outrageous that he seems almost mythical in stature.

This man who would, evidently, do anything to get a rise out of his listeners or better yet, some spare change for more wine, dares you to be offended. He pushes you to the limit and then over the edge. And then he starts laughing. Was he fooling you? Was the story for real? You may never really know.

One-man shows tend to build slowly over the course of an evening, and this is no exception. From the moment the cock crows (Joseph Seserko did the excellent sound design), and Celso groans sleepily under tossed, dirty sheets in his crude, threadbare shack (credit Gilbert Wong for the original set design and Paul Kruse for this production’s fine design), you may well wonder what is about to be perpetrated on the poor unsuspecting audience.

If you stay with it and let Celso weave his magic, wondrous things happen.

Through Celso, Sierra makes you see the moonlight (with subtle help from Jack Shepherd’s lighting). He makes you hear skeletons walk. You may swear you saw him grow a tail and horns when the terrified Celso talks of the day he turned into a devil.

It’s a demanding, complex, multifaceted role, and Sierra shows it off for the diamond it is, reflecting the light on the poignant side of Celso, then the outrageous, the comical, the tragic. It’s a memorable performance, well directed by Huerta, about the sort of fellow who would be forgotten if not for Romero’s poetry, Sierra’s and Huerta’s skillful dramatization and Sierra’s exquisite delivery.

Sierra has played Celso under the direction of Huerta, the artistic director of Teatro Mascara Magica, for the last five years throughout the country, including Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival. The show had its initial staged readings as part of the Old Globe Play Discovery Program and at UC San Diego, but this marks its first full production here.

It’s about time.

“I AM CELSO”

Adapted from the poems of Leo Romero, by Jorge Huerta and Ruben Sierra. Directed by Huerta and featuring Sierra. Stage manager, S.J. Hartsock. Original production design, Gilbert Wong; current set design, Paul Kruse. Sound, Joseph Seserko. Lighting, Jack Shepherd. At 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sundays, with Sunday matinees at 2, through July 15 matinee. Tickets are $14-16. At 1057 1st Ave., San Diego, (619) 232-4088.