It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality –Virginia Woolf

Life VS Living

When I was ten years old, I realized that “The Meaning of Life” is a big deal. People  tossed around the phrase in TV shows, films, and family conversations until the words stuck in my head like an pop tune. I started conceptualizing “Meaning” and “Life” as invisible things floating around, needing to be nailed down with “Knowing.” To this day,  “Meaning” can seem like a phantom, and my writing some sort of Ouija Board through which I desperately try to communicate.

Yet in Jose Rivera’s rich, passionate plays, such as References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, “Life” does not seem like abstract noun requiring a chase, but rather like an intimate, constant, vibrant verb. The emphasis lies not on “Life,” but on “Living,” in all its nasty and sublime glory. With his passionate characters, poetic universes, and magical flourishes, Jose Rivera defamiliarizes everything familiar, giving phantom feelings bodies and voices.

Plot Summary

References to Salvador Dali explores the emotional rift between an intelligent young woman, Gabriela, and her husband Benito, who is fighting in the Gulf War. When Benito arrives at his isolated home in the lonely Californian desert, both must face the broken state of their marriage, and negotiate their own conflicting yearnings. Other characters include an amorous moon who plays the violin, a curious cat, and a seductive coyote.

Poetry as a language for emotion

When Gabriela is alone in her hot and lonesome house, she frequently speaks with the cat and the moon through poetry rather than prose. By creating this surreal, image-driven universe, Rivera can capture Gabriela’s angst unconstrained by realistic prose. For example, when Gabriela asks the Moon if anyone else in the desert suffers like she does, the moon replies in a long poem that pops with images of loneliness:

In the house to your left

An old man watches his old wife sleeping

She breathes slowly

And he holds a mirror to her mouth.

A little cloud assures the old man

that she is alive.

He thinks of the day they first made love,

a sweet October day thousands of miles

and seasons from here.

He had never held a body

so rich with dreams

and she had never held a body

so hot and hungry

and that first liquid night…

he reached for a mirror and put the mirror to her mouth

and she breathed on it—

proving to this young disbeliever

that she was indeed alive

and not a dream…

and now the old man is afraid

of life without her

and keeps a .9 millimeter in this house

and he checks his wife’s dutiful breathing

and knows what to do in case it ever stops (24-25)

Utilizing poetry, Jose Rivera paints a gorgeous picture of enduring love. A man is so devoted and enamored by his wife that he holds a mirror to her lips; proof that she still lives. This creates a powerful image of true love, and helps the audience identify with Gabriela’s disappointment with her own marriage. Later, she holds a mirror to Benito’s mouth, and he wakes up in a violent fury and almost strikes her. Rivera thus emphasizes the painful disconnect between poetic the ideal and real, linguistically illustrating how the two feed each other.

Personification of sentiments 

Rivera also illustrates inner conflicts through personification. The Cat and the Coyote, who only speak when Gabriela is alone, represent her inner struggle about love. The Coyote sees love as “chains with chains and a flea collar attached/… Love with violence implied,” illustrating Gabriela’s feelings of repression in marriage. In retort, the Cat asks, “How cold does it get at night, Coyote?” emphasizing security as a positive aspect of love. As Coyote tempts Cat to enter the desert, so does Gabriela feel enticed to leave Benito. Rivera takes that which is unseen and gives it character, voice, and visible conflict.

Conclusion?

Rivera goes for the throat in all things emotional, unafraid to delve into issues of love, gender, desire, sex and politics with his plays. He is equally courageous in his theatrical choices, utilizing poetry, surrealism, and magical realism to explore these potent topics. While Shakespeare asked us, “To be or not to be?” Rivera tells us “Feel. And feel ALIVE.”