Freddy Acevedo (left) plays Danny Guerrero and Neil Tyrone Pritchard is Martin Leonard Brown in David Anzuelo’s new play Día y Noche.
Día y Noche is a dynamic, energy-filled new play by David Anzuelo that chronicles the lives of two teenage boys, Danny Guerrero and Martin Leonard Brown, growing up in El Paso, Texas, during the 1980s. Danny (Freddy Acevedo) and Martin (Neil Tyrone Pritchard) are polar opposites, yet their friendship is one of the best relationships they could have imagined.
Acevedo with Emma Ramos as Edna Salas. Photographs by Monique Carboni.
Danny practices his guitar early in the morning at school. Martin plays the oboe in the band. On the day that marks the beginning of their wonky yet heartfelt friendship, Martin spots Danny and approaches him. However, their friendship isn’t smooth sailing. Danny is Chicano and lower-middle-class; he is super-cool and tough, and is into girls and music. Martin is Black and comes from an upper-middle-class family; gay and closeted, he is more reserved than Danny. Their relationship shouldn’t work on paper, yet they find a connection and stability in each other.
Anzuelo organizes the play like tracks on a record: scenes show vignettes from their lives. It’s a style that works well for this production by the LAByrinth Theater Company, although, as directed by Carlos Armesto, the show runs almost three hours and could have used some trimming. Still, time flies and the energy remains high as the action progresses. The antics of these two vinegar-and-water characters are hilarious at times and sad at others, but they are mainly engaging.
Danny has a hard life dealing with a violent father who is grieving his wife’s death, and music provides an escape. As his friendship with Martin grows and deepens, Martin becomes another source of solace. Danny tells Martin about his father:
He’s been so depressed, he keeps takin’ off work. I try to contribute, but it’s not enough. He doesn’t even sleep in his bed anymore cuz Mom’s gone. He sleeps in the lazy-boy chair. An’ tonight … tonight was different. … He pulled his gun on me. Held it right to my forehead. I was petrified. I whispered that if it’d make him feel better, to just go ahead an’ do it.
Danny (Freddy Acevedo) with his theater teacher, Roger Torres (Joe Quintero).
Martin consoles Danny and lets him sleep in his car. In need of his friend and safety, Danny asks Martin to rub his head for a little. Martin does. Seeing these two teenagers’ vulnerability and the way they care for one another warms one’s heart.
Danny also helps Martin become more confident and comfortable in his own body. Martin has not told anyone that he is gay. He’s especially afraid to tell his family after seeing their less-than-supportive reaction when his brother, also gay, came out to them. He confides to his friend Jessica (Viviana Valeria), one of the young women he befriends while hanging out with Danny, that “my folks and him don’t talk anymore. My family’s pretty religious.” Jessica, who is also gay, becomes his mentor in some ways. Martin is scared. He tells her, “when I realized what … what I am, I prayed for months for God to take it away.” She reassures him he can’t pray it away and advises him to speak with his older brother. He will need all the support he can get. Martin slowly starts to find his way as the play carries on, from gathering the courage to go to a gay bar to eventually meeting someone.
Brown with Viviana Valeria as Jessica.
Meanwhile, Danny has already met someone, Edna Salas (Emma Ramos), a magnificently quirky girl from an upper-middle-class family who likes to dress in punk style. At first she appears to be a party girl; however, she is extremely intelligent and has aspirations of being a psychologist. Anzuelo gives her some of the most sexually explicit yet funniest scenes of the play—scenes wonderfully staged with intimacy coordination by Rocio Mendez.
The music by Germán Martinez perfectly complements the action and characters: it even includes an old-school Madonna song from the ’80s. The video projections by Lianne Arnold are well-designed and appealing, coordinating precisely with the scenes and sometimes even serving as the setting.
All in all, Día y Noche’s combination of men, women, sex, rock-and-roll, and friends who will go to bat for one another until the very end is immensely appealing.
The LAByrinth Theater production of Día y Noche plays at 59E59 Theaters through April 15. Evening performances are at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; matinees are at 2:15 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; for tickets and more information, visit 59e59.org.
