"A Bicycle Country" portrays struggle of life in Cuba

By Elizabeth Eide
Daily Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

Movimiento Estudiantil de Teatro y Artes, or META, put on its third full-length production, "A Bicycle Country," which opened Friday in the Student Union.

META is a club that was started by Cal State Long Beach students who felt there were not any productions that grasped the Hispanic experience, or even Hispanic roles in on-campus productions. META actually sprung from a political group on campus called La Raza, which, translated from Spanish, means "the race." This proactive group has produced two other full length plays as well as other performances by Latino students at Cal State Long Beach. META offers Hispanic students more opportunities to get involved on stage or behind the scenes.

Nilo Cruz, a Cuban-born, American-raised playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for "Anna in the Tropics", wrote "A Bicycle Country". Cruz did not have a political agenda, only a desire to preserve the Cuban spirit. His work displays the daily challenges of living in a government-repressed country. Though META received the rights to produce the play, Cruz has not written his final draft of the script. This production remains unpublished for the time being, which gave "A Bicycle Country" what director Guillermo Aviles-Rodriguez describes as a "raw edge."

The play takes place in Havana, Cuba, focusing on two men and a woman who long to leave the mundane daily life of their communal society. Aviles-Rodriguez wanted to display the Cuba he knew from his own experience, the one that most American audiences have been deprived of, not that of the Hollywood view. They attempted to take a little bit of Cuba with them, which is symbolically represented throughout their journey.

One of the walls that held up their house, for example, eventually becomes the raft that would take them to a better place. The show had a stylish, symbolic sharpness and dramatic sexual content, in the form of some partial nudity and heavy kissing. The story allowed a lot of room for interpretation by leaving the ending up to the audience.

The play was written in light of the Cuban spirit and seeks to open the eyes of the culturally challenged. Disappointingly, the point of the story was lost in humdrum details and dialogue. It became clear to me that the objective of showing Nilo Cruz's "A Bicycle Country," and that of META's, was to simply perpetuate Latino roles in theatre instead of showing a Hispanic way of life. The three characters might not have been as convincing if they were played by white students, however the only thing Hispanic about the characters were their features and birth place.

To my disappointment, no Cuban values, customs, beliefs, food or culture of any kind was displayed in the story line. The only Latino-inspired detail was the Latin music that played during set changes.

The lack of Hispanicness could have been due in part to a low budget, but the prominent theme seemed to be the life of poor immigrants, not Cubans.

The three characters in the show were played by Wendy Chavez, Joe Byrd, and Lorenzo J. Uribe. Wendy is a 23-year-old theater major at Cal State Long Beach and serves as META's current treasurer. Joe Byrd, who played the role of Julio, is a Cal State Long Beach graduate and now a studying tap dancer. Lorenzo J. Uribe, who played the role of Pepe, is a criminal justice major and Spanish minor as well as one of the founding members META.

Overall, the play provides students with an interesting look at a way of life that they may not often see, but it wasn't without its problems. "A Bicycle Country" is playing through Oct. 9 in the University Student Union. Shows are on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and are $8 each.