The Man Who Failed to Fly premiere
By Lawrence Murphy

The Man Who Failed to Fly is an entertaining and thought-provoking play written and produced by Ana della Marina Rego of Zihuataneo and New York City.

The play, which explores the classic themes of initiation and return, premiered April 9–11, at the Bbilioteca’s Teatro Santa Ana. 

Sterling de la Garza is a native of Mexico who has returned to the country of his birth for a two-week vacation on the Bay of Las Palmas. Sterling, played by Juan Carlos Vincourt, keeps missing his plane back to New York and his job as an ad exec in the twin towers of the World Trade Center. He is “grounding” himself in his culture and homeland (and life and love to boot). Sterling is the classic hero, the puer aternus, who is searching for his soul and meaning in life.

The tragedy of 9/11 opens the play. Events like the assassination of John Kennedy, the Pearl Harbor attack and the collapse of the twin towers are psychic wake-up calls. All of the characters in the play are marked inwardly by the outer tragedy of 9/11. What happens to Sterling is a gradual descent (aided by alcohol and sex) into the depth of his own soul. 

He begins his journey with Owen Lee, who serves as “psychopomp” or soul guide, and kicks off Sterling’s initiation by taking him out to his place on “The Point.” What we witness here is a journey much like Ulysses took—into the feminine world of feeling and love. All of the characters surrounding Sterling, including his friends Daniel, Ruby and May, are undergoing a call to transformation as well.

Gleefully (and sorrowfully) presiding over the transformation of all the characters in the play is Muerte (Death), who silently mans the Bar Las Palmas, pouring libations for his patrons. Death as bartender is a wonderful touch in the play. The beauty and terror of Mexican culture includes the almost nonchalant acceptance of death and destruction so aptly illustrated by Grace’s (the teacher of Mexican children) young students. They accept 9/11 in a manner we cannot because death is an integral part of their lives and culture.

This play operates on many levels. It holds a mirror up to the expatriate experience, it examines the soul journeys of men and women in a lush tropical setting and it is a profound meditation on the age-old question, “What do we want out of life?”

Ana della Marina Rego asks important questions in this play. She understands what it means to take the journey of the soul against the backdrop of a different culture.