‘Marriage Is Forever’ Cleverly Skewers ‘90s Couple’s Values

This may be a New Age, but we can’t ignore the Old Values.

That’s the message delivered in rollicking fashion by “Marriage Is Forever,” Edit Villarreal’s sassy and sentimental new comedy getting its premiere at the San Diego Repertory Theatre.

“Marriage,” which was commissioned by the Latino Theatre Initiative at the Mark Taper Forum, orbits around Pati and Paul, a pair of fast-track Mexican American yuppies planning a quickie cyber-wedding, a honeymoon in Maui, then long years of achievement--she as a surgeon, he as an eco-marine scientist. Their posh La Jolla condo is state of the art, with its wall of electronic equipment that includes his-and-her laptops.

They’re set to go online with a Net-minister and e-speak their vows, but they get unexpected guests. First come both sets of parents, then up pops Pati’s grandmother, a bruja (witch). Upset by the casualness and haste of the planned ceremony, she resurrects several generations of the couple’s ancestors.

Each new personality brings revelations--some good, some not so--and, like all families, one generation’s beliefs about another often turn out to be untrue. Meanwhile, Paul makes his own revelation--he had a different plan for their future than Pati expected. Furious, she wants to call the whole thing off. Subsequent events, of course, help the couple reconcile--it is a comedy--and they both feel richer for knowing their heritage.

Villarreal uses the mix of myth and modernity, along with the varied characters--one ancestor was Jewish, another African Indian Mexican--to offer lessons in history and tradition. But she seasons the portrayals with considerable spoofery, having fun with everything from computers (Pati’s dad, taking his first look at a laptop screen, remarks, “They look like windows”) to the Mexican tendency to use nicknames (Grandmother says she was always called Cuca--”What do you expect with a name like Refugio?”).

The parade of characters, and their relationships, sometimes becomes hard to follow (maybe the program ought to contain a family tree--or family flowchart). But, although intricate, the script is coherent, and director Sam Woodhouse keeps the action flowing so that any momentary confusion soon clears up.

That’s also true of the dialogue. The play’s English is festooned with Spanish phrases and sentences, so familiarity with the second language is helpful but not necessary. Villarreal adeptly weaves in translations of the longer Spanish passages, usually immediately.

In the cast, Catalina Maynard, John Padilla, Vetza Trussell and Ruben Garfias play several people, and as is usual in these multiple-role enterprises, they succeed better with some characters than with others. Most importantly, Yolanda Lloyd Delgado and Juan Monsalvez keep the central couple credible and likable throughout. And Linda Castro is terrific as the belching, boogieing grandmother, as earthy as she is otherworldly.

Costume designer Janet Teller heads the tech credits, providing outfits that vividly define people in different eras. Christopher Acebo’s set features that electronic wall, topped with translucent panels that lighting designer Trevor Norton uses effectively for silhouetted figures. The sound, by Randy Cohen and Fred Lanuza--who also supplies some original music--wasn’t totally in sync on Friday, opening night.

The script still needs tightening, and among the excisions should be the godlike voice-over at the end. It just restates the obvious.

* “Marriage Is Forever,” Lyceum Space, Horton Plaza, San Diego. Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. (plus this Wednesday and April 21 at 2 p.m.). Ends April 25. $21-$32. (619) 231-3586. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.