ONCE FIVE YEARS PASS
I shouldn’t actually pin all the blame on Garcia Lorca, since his play–inscrutable as it is–has been muddled even further by its Latino Chicago Theater production. That production’s stupefying nature is perfectly captured by the synopsis included in the program: “Once Five Years Pass is a legend of echoes that need to be revealed through a transcendental intuition that gives a glimpse and shakes the curiosity of only those whom are ready to give of themselves and enter its fascinating labyrinth.”
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But the play is not really “about” anything. Each event merely serves as the starting point for a verbal riff by Garcia Lorca. When the Old Man (Thomas J. Carroll) hears the Young Man’s decision, for example, he says, “Fifteen years she’s lived, and they are what she is. Why not say fifteen snows, fifteen winds, fifteen sunsets! You don’t dare to run! To fly! To extend your love to the whole sky!”
