Latino Culture and Fantasy Blend in Kid-Friendly 'World'

The great theatrical homage to video games has yet to be written, but gaming receives a brief, droll nod in "Mermaids, Monsters, and the World Painted Purple," a well-intentioned, fitfully inspired children's production at the Kennedy Center's Family Theater.

This world premiere, written by dramatist Marco Ramirez and directed by Gregg Henry, consists of six playlets rooted in traditional and contemporary Latino culture. In the liveliest of the sketches, "Lupe and the F Train Monster," a New York schoolgirl fritters away her subway commuting time on a handheld combat game. In a couple of snazzy sequences, life-size versions of the game's pixilated warriors take center stage: Two silvery, helmeted figures square off using clunky martial-arts moves, like glitter-dunked storm troopers trapped in a Bruce Lee movie.

Nothing else in the 70-minute show (recommended for 9 and older) is quite as vibrant, though to Ramirez's credit, he aims for breadth and even profundity rather than razzle-dazzle. The dramatist, who's a graduate student in playwriting at Juilliard, devotes several sketches to somber topics that are likely to prompt post-show discussions between parents and children. "Chester, Who Painted the World Purple," for instance, depicts the fond relationship between a contemporary boy (Mauricio Tafur Salgado) and his baseball-besotted grandfather (a persuasively doddering Michael Russotto), who is going blind.

Even more sobering is "All the Noises This House Makes (or Guaguancó)," a historical tale of slavery in Cuba: When an African youth named Carbón (Kofi Owusu) is shipped to a plantation and assigned to grueling labor, he finds solace in turning farm tools into instruments of percussion.

Despite vigorous moments of metal-on-metal drumming, the energy in "All the Noises" feels low, as if the actors were more conscious of educating ticket-holders than of living the characters. A similar aridness tinges "B-Minor," a folk tale about a sinister stranger (Salgado) who challenges a village shoemaker (Russotto) to a song contest.

And the production's opening playlet, "Sirena," about a boy (Salgado) who falls in love with a mermaid (Dawn Ursula), is positively sluggish -- a terrible launch pad for the show (although the ocean vistas, contributed by video designer Samuel Tressler IV, do have a melodramatic glamour).

The sketches are more compelling when they deal with contemporary popular culture. In addition to its video-game showdown, "Lupe and the F Train Monster" features a hilarious cameo by Hernandez, as an urban teenager given to excited, I'm-like-whatever locutions. And in "I Am Not Batman," a monologue executed in front of a moodily illuminated Gotham-style cityscape, a spirited Salgado plays a lad whose obsession with the Dark Knight colors his relationship with his father (this piece earned an award for best 10-minute play at the prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville).

Mermaids, Monsters, and the World Painted Purple, by Marco Ramirez. Directed by Gregg Henry; lighting, Beverly Emmons; sound design, Elisheba Ittoop; music and orchestrations, Deborah Wicks La Puma; properties artisan, Katie Touart. With Jenna Sokolowski and Stephen M. McWilliams. About 70 minutes. Through Oct. 26 at the Kennedy Center Family Theater. Call 202-467-4600 or visit http://www.kennedy-center.org.