Two culture-cross’d lovers

Thwarted romance -- oh, how it tugs at the heart, whether the lovers are Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or “Casablanca’s” Rick and Ilsa.

This eternal pull goes a long way toward explaining the impact of “Kino and Teresa,” a beautifully conceived, quietly devastating new play by James Lujan. A New World retelling of “Romeo and Juliet,” it is the fifth annual offering from Native Voices, the Autry National Center’s development program for Native American theater.

Lujan moves Shakespeare’s story of “star cross’d lovers” to late-17th century Santa Fe, in what we know today as New Mexico. The region, at that time, had already been roiled by more than 150 years of conquest, retaliation and deep distrust. Lujan envisions tensions running high in the settlement’s plaza, where Spanish colonists and Native Americans openly regard one another as “savages” and engage in bloody free-for-alls.

Amid these tensions, Kino (Robert Vestal), the son of an eminent Native American family, crashes a fiesta with a couple of his pals. There he encounters Teresa (Elena Finney), the daughter of a prominent Spanish household, splayed on the floor after a dancing mishap with the governor’s clumsy son (Kevin Sifuentes). Kino helps her to her feet, and it’s you-know-what at first sight. Soon, they’re getting moony under the full moon and a canopy of stars.

Lujan closely follows “Romeo and Juliet” and even echoes some of its most famous lines, as when Kino stands outside Teresa’s adobe dwelling, asking: “What is that light from yonder window?” Lujan is no mere mimic, however. His writing -- which is looser and more contemporary-sounding than Shakespeare’s -- is sprinkled with pretty phrases of its own, and in all sorts of interesting ways it opens up the original story for renewed contemplation.

Among the most notable innovations is the transformation of Romeo’s pal Mercutio to Kino’s friend Cristobal (Ehecatl Chavez). Born of a Spanish father and Native American mother, Cristobal feels caught between cultures, and his inability to reconcile the two quite literally proves to be his undoing when he draws his sword to protect Kino from an angry Spaniard.

Still, it’s a bit of a miracle that this staging, under Kenneth Martines’ direction, develops the power that it does. The large cast gets caught in traffic jams on the small stage of the Autry’s Wells Fargo Theater, and the performances, while professional, aren’t always as crisp or as convincing as they could be.

It’s often the naked urgency in Vestal’s voice, the delicate emotion in Finney’s face or a simple, painterly character grouping that pulls the show back together and reestablishes its mood.

And so, Kino and Teresa -- at the mercy of history, culture, power and happenstance -- head inexorably toward their fate. As we compare their situation to our own, we can only hope that Kino isn’t right when he laments: “Sometimes it seems like the world will never know of love again.”

*

‘Kino and Teresa’

Where: Wells Fargo Theater, Autry National Center, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park, Los Angeles

When: 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

Ends: March 20

Price: $20

Info: (866) 468-3399 or www.ticketweb.com

Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes