By Daniel Arimborgo
It has been a common tenet in most religious thought that some, if not all scientific discoveries are better left undiscovered.
With issues like cloning and genetic engineering now being hotly debated even among the non-religious, perhaps we already have enough on the table and should be happy no one has discovered a way to halt the aging process.
But in Spanish playwright Enrique Jardiel Poncela’s screwball comedy, “Brake Four Hearts (and Put in Reverse),” somebody has.
Jardiel originally wrote this “theater of the unlikely” play for Broadway in 1935 during a two-year stint in the United states where he also wrote Hollywood screenplays for Fox Studio’s Spanish division.
“What happens here inside has to be as different as possible from what can happen outside,” Jardiel wrote in an essay on the genre. “Here [is] freedom from worry . . . joy, laughter [are] renewed.”
“Brake for Hearts” has been lovingly recreated by Angel Gil Orrios, the Thalia's executive director, who produced and directed the work.
The play focuses on five people: Ricardo (Alex del Romero) and Valentina (Flor Angie), a couple; Doctor Bremon (Francisco Fuertes) who discovers an immortality elixir; Bremon’s fiance Dona Hortensia (Soledad Lopez), and a postman, Emiliano (Fermin Suarez).
The setting is Madrid, 1910. Ricardo and Valentina wish to marry, and when Bremon informs Ricardo that he has invented an elixir which stops aging, Ricardo sees his chance to live long enough to receive an inheritance without growing old, and so be able to live forever with his sweetheart Valentina in wealthy bliss.
The two couples and Emiliano, the nosy postman who weasels himself in on the adventure, quickly drink the potion with some wine, toasting to immortality.
Dr. Bremon keeps his discovery a secret — he knows, he says, what disastrous effects would lay in store if the entire world were to become immortal.
The quintet also take advantage of a visiting life insurance salesman, from whom they buy 100-year life insurance policies, knowing they will live to receive the returns. Ricardo and Valentina relish the anticipation of spending eternity together in endless love.
Cut to the future on a deserted island off the American coast in the mid 1960s, where we find the immortals have all grown tired of endless life and each other in their self-imposed exile, save for Emiliano, who enjoys trying to master new things with little success, like trying to start a fire with two sticks, and building boomerangs that don’t return. Ricardo is suicidal.
The group, now dressed in hippy clothing, has moved to the island because they cannot relate to nor stand to be around the younger generations who they see making the same mistakes as generations before them.
It seems life without end is dull. They only appreciate the island when the U.S. government tells them they will have to leave soon. In the interim however, the doctor has come up with a de-aging formula which can eventually end their tormented lives by reversing the aging process, leaving them helpless infants in the final stage before death, he says. The process will take several years, however. All eagerly drink the new formula except for Emiliano, who is still perfectly happy being immortal.
Back in Spain, the play again time-jumps ahead, showing the two couples’ children, now in their 60s, and grandchildren in their early 20s, which leads to much confusion and friction.
The last scene leaves you wanting to see what will happen next, but even theater of the unlikely has its limitations!
“Brake Four Hearts” runs through Dec. 16. English showings are on Thursdays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 3 p.m.; Spanish performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m.
The Thalia Spanish Theatre is at 41-17 Greenpoint Ave. in Sunnyside. Tickets are $22; students and seniors: $20. (Thursday-Friday tickets are $20 and $18).
For more information or to make reservations call 729-3880.
Reach Qguide writer Daniel Arimborgo by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 2239-0300, Ext. 139.
