Photo by Danisha Crosby. Zabryna Guevara and Laura C. Harris in Round House Theatre's production of "26 Miles."

Published on: Wednesday, November 18, 2009

By David Cannon, Sentinel Arts Critic

Is there any literary genre more American than the road story? Whether it is Huck Finn floating down the Mississippi or Jack Keroac and the Beat Generation “on the road,” this concept of traveling wherever one feels has proven to be a distinctively American style of writing. The physical journey becomes an all-too-apt metaphor for the spiritual and moral journeys of the main characters.

Currently at Round House Theatre in Bethesda is “26 Miles,” where playwright Quiara Alegria Hudes adds a Hispanic-American spin on the format. “26 Miles” has all the strengths and flexibility of any great road story, and some of the genre’s limitations too.

 Hudes, best known for the book to the award winning musical “In the Heights,” takes the road story and gives it female characters. This tends to be a male-dominated format, but these characters are mother and daughter of Hispanic origin, and that adds a lot of freshness to an almost cliché situation. As usual, the characters travel light, but they carry a lot of emotional baggage with them that gets hashed out during this cross-country trip.

Certainly, the characters have a lot to chew over. Olivia’s parents had a very messy divorce and child custody battle. Olivia lives with her father and his new wife and that situation is growing sour. A frantic late night phone call to her mother, Beatriz, sets the story in motion. On the way to Wyoming, mother and daughter will have plenty to talk about and more than a few confessions to make.

Perhaps playwright Hudes gives her characters a little too much to hash out over the 90 minutes in this one act story. Still, the characters are fresh and the lead actresses are more than sympathetic. Laura Harris plays Olivia as a slightly bookish but very perceptive teenage daughter who is very forthright in her opinions, while Zabryna Guevara makes Beatriz an outwardly fiery mother who gradually reveals a much more sensitive inner being. 

The men play a number of roles that are less defined as main characters, but Michael Frederic as the hapless father and Triney Sandoval do well as Beatriz’s currently two-timing lover. Director K. J. Sanchez keeps it all moving smoothly while the minimalist set pieces and projections by Daniel Conway swiftly change with the action from various locales as the characters travel cross country.

The problem with most road stories is – let me put it politely – the journey is far more important than the destination. In other words, most road stories have weak endings. After all those great scenes of Huck Finn floating down the Mississippi with Jim, those final scenes with Tom Sawyer are a letdown, and while everyone has a favorite episode from “On the Road,” no one remembers how the book ends.

It must be a common fault of the genre, because the ending of “26 Miles” has little sense of closure. So remember it is the journey and not the destination. One memorable example – along the way Hudes has her characters meet a Tamal Seller, played by Sandoval, who has this hypnotic soliloquy about how his wife cooks a meal. It is just a description of what someone does in the kitchen, but here it is sensual and mesmerizing. It is a high point of the journey, and you can hear a pin drop.

“26 Miles” continues at Round House Theatre in Bethesda through Nov. 22.  For more information, call 240-644-1100 or visit http://www.roundhousetheatre.org/.