The Hombres cast. Photo by Jason Grow.
Presented by Teatro Chelsea and Gloucester Stage Company
by Tony Meneses
Directed by Armando Rivera
Intimacy Direction by Olivia Dumaine
Fight Direction by Robert Walsh
Movement Direction by Nathaniel Justiniano
Dramaturgy by Yijia Yu
September 6 – 29, 2024
Gloucester Stage & Chelsea Theatre Works
Featuring Arthur Gomez, Jaime José Hernandez, Ricardo “Ricky” Holguin, Luis Negrón, Patrick O’Konis
100 minutes + 15 minute intermission
Critique by Kitty Drexel
CHELSEA, Mass. — We sincerely apologize to the cast, crew, and staff of The Hombres for our publishing delay. Life had become personally and professionally unwieldy and there weren’t enough hours in the day for our many responsibilities. Nosotros nos disculpamos.
The run of The Hombres ended on Sept. 29. If you missed it, it sucks to be you. This play rocked.
The Hombres is a play about a generous, kind yoga instructor, studio manager, and dancer Julián (Ricardo “Ricky” Holguin) turning around to find random straight men in his studio. Julián is cleaning and choreographing a new dance piece. He turns around: BAM! Strong and silent construction site manager Héctor (Arthur Gomez, who is finally getting the larger roles he deserves) is standing in the studio offering custodial services in exchange for yoga classes. Julián contemplates the risks he’s taking by allowing Héctor in the studio after hours. He turns around: BAM! Héctor’s coworker from the site Pedro (Luis Negrón) wants classes, too. Julián can’t face the back wall for fear he’ll discover another straight guy when he turns around.
Token white guy, Miles (Patrick O’Konis) can afford the $35 class fee*. He doesn’t physically sneak up on Julián. Miles asks him to be his friend instead. BAM: emotional labor demanded by a victim of the male loneliness epidemic.
Julián finds a teaching schedule: Miles takes classes during the day; Héctor and Pedro take yoga and clean at night. The straight guys develop emotionally mature friendships with Julián and find centering through yoga. Julián has less time to choreograph, but he’s helping his community.
They have a rhythm… Until emotionally immature construction guy Beto (Jaime José Hernandez who buzzes in this role like an angry, sexually confused hornet under a glass jar) catches Héctor and Pedro in Julián’s studio after hours. Beto threatens the men’s newfound centering and Julián’s employment. The Hombres takes a long hard look at men’s loneliness, the toxic limitations of machismo culture, and the privilege of white male friendships. (#notallwhitemalefriendships)
Yes, white men have friendship privilege. I see it in my younger brother’s friendships with other white men. I see it at parties and in the breakroom of my support job. These men hug and ask each other about their mental health. They are unabashedly sensitive guys living a relatively affluent lifestyle of compound gym memberships, outsourced meal prep, and private daycare facilities. They can cry over their mini-batch beers in swanky bars because they have the cash for a therapist (who doesn’t take insurance) to diagnose them as “in need of some selfcare.” When you live in a situation that costs as much as living at or under the poverty line, judgement free friendship is privilege.
The blue-collar men like the ones proudly worked with when I worked in construction couldn’t afford any of that privileged BS. (I was a receptionist.) Nor did many have the inclination. They were hard working but simple men who wanted a good life. There’s nothing wrong with simplicity. There is something wrong with a country that claims to be #1 but refuses to guarantee comprehensive care to the humans who renovate it. No one practicing the physical principles of yoga while rejecting its spiritual principles will find Nirvana.
Tony Meneses’ characters have a loneliness problem; they need therapy. As The Hombres showed us, yoga isn’t therapy. Learning how to develop emotional awareness beyond rage and horniness (while understanding where those feeling come from) is how men survive the loneliness epidemic. If men continue to ignore this men’s issue without taking responsibility, they are doomed. Good mental health isn’t gay; it’s basic hygiene.
Even if it were gay, so what? All of the best people are.
Anyone who has done yoga longer than a newbie taking a January class as part of the New Year’s resolution they’ll break before February 1, knows that yoga done properly enables the practitioner to reduce anxiety, build strength, and stare with spiritual intent at other yogis’ sweaty butts. (Maybe that last part is just me. It’s a perk.) Through breathing, the yogi slows down their mind and refocuses their thoughts on the present. It’s peaceful and addictive if you find the right class.
Ricardo Holguin as Julián demonstrated yogic breathing to the audience in his character’s monologues. On Saturday evening, the yogis in the audience breathed with him. I could hear my neighbors breathing: in front, behind, and next to me. The audience’s concurrent deep breaths brought it into group awareness with the cast.
Chelsea Theatre Works’ black box theatre is intimate. It was a sold-out show. We synced up. It was transcendent.
I’m an emotional theatergoer. I want a story to walk me through a range of emotions so I can connect with my fellow humans. It is very rare indeed for a play to actively welcome its audience into its story with breathwork. I felt ready to receive the show the same way I would feel ready for yoga. I completely forgot I was there to critique. Instead, I was swept away by the performance. Critic-brain turned off. Hedonistic theatre-brain turned on. This is only the second time this has happened in my 12+ year career. Bravo, cast. I’m not special, but this experience was.
Nathaniel Justiniano’s movement direction and choreography suited The Hombres. It incorporated yoga asanas and modern dance that were suitable for the studio and a construction site. Holguin moves well. He made Justiniano’s dance and Rivera’s direction a spiritual experience.
The play’s designs was spectacular. It looked perfect for travel. It made excellent use of the characters’ personalities as well as the small space of Chelsea Theater Works. If you can read this and you worked on the lighting, costume, scenic, sound, inter-actor development, and prop design, yours is excellent work. (The lighting through the scaffolding when the scaffolding moved was so cool.) I apologize for not waxing lyrically about how awesome you are. I owe you a few sentences in a future critique.
Many of my critic colleagues will have supportive things to say about The Hombres. All of the positive things are correct. This show was brilliant because it took dramatic and physical risks that paid off for everyone involved: cast, crew, staff, producers, audience. Teatro Chelsea got to borrow from Gloucester Stage’s many resources such as time and money. Gloucester Stage got to borrow Teatro Chelsea’s cultural clout as a fringe theatre company with an audience only Chelsea can provide. It’s like the ideological sides in Meneses took physical form and produced a play with dance. Again, Bravo.
*Who the heck pays $35 for a yoga class? Rich white people who want to buy their way into Nirvana without changing their greedy consumerist habits, that’s who.
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