Anguished Outsider's Cries Are Clear in Any Language

Teatro de la Luna is well underway with its ninth International Festival of Hispanic Theater, recently featuring Costa Rica's Cesar Melendez in "El Inmigrante (The Immigrant)," an alternately comic and anguished solo show that exhaustively describes the plight of immigrants.

It didn't matter that the immigrant played by Melendez was Nicaraguan, or that the hostile land of plenty he invaded was Costa Rica. The issue effortlessly transcended national boundaries, and the simultaneous English translation of Melendez's Spanish available on headsets was equally clear.

Weary man, torn and bloody clothing, xenophobic thugs in a bar yelling epithets at the outsider -- what's not to get?

Still, Melendez -- whose occasionally overheated show has been widely performed in his home country -- left nothing to chance. The actor-writer-director based the piece on a newspaper account of one Nicaraguan's hardships in Costa Rica, but his approach was anything but documentary. In a tempestuous 90-minute monologue, the heart bled, the soul cried and the immigrant complained to Jesus -- or a small crucifix, at any rate -- about the degradations he had to endure.

Mournful is almost too mellow a word for Melendez's characterization. How do you describe a performance that climaxed with the actor flinging himself about the stage as his hapless Nicaraguan worker suffered a brutal beating by a gang of Costa Ricans, and ultimately staggered into the posture of Christ on the cross? The miracle was that Melendez's solemn passion kept the excesses from feeling altogether absurd, even when he undoubtedly was over the top.

Fortunately, Melendez seized the available opportunities to convey a certain amount of charm and humility (really) in the part. The colorful, mild lampoon of the immigrant's potbellied boss was agreeably amusing, and so were the sound effects he sometimes used as he told stories: the squeaky hinges of barroom doors, the flying chips of concrete he hammers at during the sweltering day.

And, naturally, it was impossible not to respond to the immigrant's earnest reports of impossible circumstances: the brutal government at home, the fickle climate, the Costa Rican headhunter who came to Nicaragua looking for legal immigrant workers, the dangerous trip toward a hopefully better place.

"It's not my fault," came the cry. And Melendez, flipping his long hair out of his face and looking heavenward, managed to make the lament compelling as often as not.

Hosting artists from countries such as the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Spain, the festival, at Gunston Arts Center in Arlington, continues this weekend with Uruguay's "No sere feliz, pero tengo marido (I Might Not Be Happy, but At Least I'm Married)."

Teatro de la Luna's International Theatre Festival continues through March 11 at the Gunston Arts Center, 2700 S. Lang St., Arlington. Call 703-548-3092 or visit http://www.teatrodelaluna.org http://