STAGE REVIEW : ‘Buscando America’ Finds a Parodistic Brilliance : Theater: An Aztec god who awakens in Los Angeles generates a multitude of interesting situations. Its limitations aside, the play succeeds in showing the shallowness of modern values.

What happens when an Aztec god who has lost his powers wakes up on a Los Angeles street and nobody recognizes him? For one thing, you get an allegorical sendup of Latino culture that unfolds at times with brilliant parodistic energy.

The central premise of Roy Conboy’s “Buscando America/Seeking America,” which opened Thursday at Rancho Santiago College, couldn’t be more pointed in its intention to satirize not only the shallowness of contemporary values but also the god’s inflated vanity and injured pride.

The play does this by exploiting the screwball misunderstandings engendered in the basic situation--which is not unlike the landing of a dumbfounded Martian--multiplying them from one scene to the next with a lowly taco vendor, a pair of star-struck Hollywood tourists, a macho drug dealer and his girlfriends, a rich woman unsatisfied by her wealth and an imperious magistrate.

The funniest scene by far depicts the god Quetzalcoatl’s confrontation with Carlos the drug dealer, a strutting vato who worships money, women and his immaculately polished, “chariot de oro” pickup truck--not necessarily in that order. The humor is greatest here because it cuts closest to the bone (with no small thanks to Eddie Rivera’s exaggerated performance as Carlos).

But as enlightenment begins to dawn on Quetzalcoatl, whose quest to regain his former powers provides the play with its satirical thrust, it becomes all too apparent that “Buscando America” is trying for pathos as well as bitng social commentary.

Unfortunately, Conboy is much less successful at engaging our pity than our laughter--mainly because the writing loses its tension and the tone becomes self-indulgent when it takes aim at the tragic dimensions of the story.

Moreover, the mythic legend at the heart of the play--Quetzalcoatl’s conflict with his brother god Tezcatlipoca--is established in absurdist terms as an Orwellian thriller replete with Big Brotherish video newscasts and pistol-toting assassins in trench coats and aviator sunglasses.

All of this is played against the vivid backdrop of a huge billboard depicting a black cityscape silhouetted by a bright, yellow sky and big, bouncy letters proclaiming: “Hello from Los Angeles.” On either side of the billboard are two painted skeletons. The stage floor bears the death’s-head emblem of an enormous white skull. The blend--while inventive and visually rich--just does not lends itself to pathos.

The cast, in the meantime, shows the intense enthusiasm of amateurs imbued with belief, if not always with polish. As Quetzalcoatl, Michael San Roman brings great comic warmth to his performance. Laurie Woolery, who plays Tezcatlipoca in various guises--including the taco vendor, a bus driver, and a corrupt major domo--has a certain furious presence.

Like Woolery, the other cast members also play multiple roles. Rivera stands out, though, with his pricelessly overdone strut as the drug dealer. Also notable is Jo Bond’s gavel-pounding magistrate, a cartoonish figure who purposely can’t pronounce Quetzalcoatl’s name.

As the playwright, Conboy could have used more help than he has received to date at the various workshops where the script has been developed. The script still needs to be trimmed of unnecessary repetitions as well as confusing inconsistencies. But he clearly has a work-in-progress worth refining. As the director, Conboy cannot be faulted. His staging is sharp and highly theatrical.

Finally, it ought to be said that this production of “Buscando America” represents something of a triumph as the maiden outing for the new multicultural troupe Cucucuevez, especially given its minimal financial resources.

‘BUSCANDO AMERICA/SEEKING AMERICA’

A production of Cucucuevez at Rancho Santiago College’s Phillips Hall Little Theatre West in Santa Ana, at 17th St. and Bristol. Written and directed by Roy Conboy. With Michael San Roman, Laurie Woolery, Stefane, Laura S. Salcido, Eddie Rivera, Michael Louie, Marcus Parrish, Jo Bond, Wendi de Barros and Ken Jensen. Scenic design by Scott Shaffer. Costumes by Gina Davidson. Lighting by Kris Clark. Music and sound by Marcus Parrish.