Gabriel Rivas Gomez‘s Level Up!, now having its world premiere at the Latino Theater Company, is a cute and ambitious multimedia-heavy play that is unfortunately bogged down by too many storylines.

Despite the play utilizing the dead mother trope with a vastly underwritten part for the mother and heavy-handed virtue signaling moments when it comes to trans identity, there is a singular and incredibly endearing thread that will resonate for many involving the play’s heroine and the love for her canine family member.

Latino Theater Company presents the world premiere of Level Up!, a visually stunning, emotionally resonant, family-friendly new play that unfolds across everyday reality as well as in a vividly imagined virtual realm. Desi López, a trans tween, is afraid to come out to her family. In her oversized hoodie, Desi is seen as a boy IRL (in real life). But inside The Proxy, a richly imagined virtual world within the play’s digital realm, Desi discovers the freedom to exist as her true self: a powerful female warrior with enormous butterfly wings who embarks on an epic quest to save her dying dog and reunite with her mother.

At the core of this play is Desi (Mathias Brinda), a trans teenager who retreats to her video game in hopes of saving her dying dog Azlan (Andi René Christensen who does both the puppeteering and the avatar video game form). But it’s also about their dead mother (Sol Marina Crespo) who has become a mysterious NPC (non-playable character) in the Proxy, the virtual realm where the video game takes place. In addition to all of that, the play is also about Desi identifying as a woman and having her older brother Memo (Xol Gonzalez) and father (Richard Azurdia) accepting the transition. With three storylines running at once, the play immediately loses focus of which storyline takes priority as it tries to juggle all three with varying degrees of success.

The most resoundingly successful storyline is about Azlan and if the entire play just focused on that, not only would it shave off 20-30 minutes of an already too long family friendly play (you want to hit 45 minutes to 90 minutes MAX when it comes to theatre for young audiences), but the play is immeasurably strengthened in its focus if it was simply about coming to terms with inevitable death and grief for a beloved furry family member. In fact, it is nearly impossible to come away from the scenes involving the dog dry-eyed as the impending death of Azlan looms a heavy shadow on all the family.

The least successful storyline is about the mother as this play once again uses the exhaustingly over-done dead mother/wife trope with the character yet again being vastly underwritten. Sol Marina Crespo does the best with what very little is given to her as most of her scenes is just watching the action unfold in the background, setting up the scenery, or singing a few songs. This ties back with the Azlan storyline that if the play was just about navigating grief when it comes to the death of a furry family member, then there is no need to have any dead parents as a plot device as I often find that such usages are lacking in imagination.

When it comes to the transition storyline, the biggest critique I would give for it is the playwright’s frequent usage of what I call virtue signaling lines, the kind of lines that elicit strong snaps and claps from the audience but offer little substance beyond that. It is the kind of issue I quite often find in almost every play that deals with underrepresented identities as it is either the playwright’s habit or theatre companies’ requirements that feel it is somehow necessary to showcase how aware they are of said identity. Why is this always the case? Why can’t we do more with less? There would be so much more power that in the end, all the play needed was for the father to call Desi “hija” as his way of finally embracing his daughter as she would like to identify herself. In fact, I would argue that there actually doesn’t need to be the need for such trans identity plays and just have the character be played by a trans actor.

Like any video game story, there is a villain in the form of Smallfish (Wiley Naman Strasser), a digital clone of a very clearly millennial-aged man that is the bastard child of The Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl and Tron Legacy‘s Clu 2. Speaking of which, the Proxy set design is no doubt heavily inspired by Tron so for those who are familiar with that trilogy would have a nostalgic blast seeing the virtual realm come to life, thanks to scenic designer François-Pierre Couture, lighting designer Xinyuan Li and projection designer Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh. As successful as the Proxy was designed, the Smallfish character made absolutely no sense in a realm where the rules were arbitrary at best and nonsensical at worst. While it certainly looked like Strasser was having a lot of fun with the role, the eccentric theatricality did not quite suit him as he was at his strongest when impersonating the abuelo.

The character of 8eatles the 8ard (Khalif J. Gillett) also made little sense but there is joy in seeing Gillett absolutely own the stage in their arena-filling glory. That is, if only their mic actually worked most of the time. This was only a small part of the numerous tech issues that were present during the opening matinee performance as many cues were off and overall presentation just seemed a bit incomplete but hopefully these issues will be smoothed out as they continue their run. In the end, there is a gem inside this ambitious piece that tries to tackle too many things at once and for that alone, it is a good time for all especially for those who love video games.

Level Up!
• Written by Gabriel Rivas Gómez
• Directed by Fidel Gómez
• Starring Richard Azurdia, Mathias Brinda, Andi René Christensen, Sol Marina Crespo, Khalif J. Gillett, Xol Gonzalez and Wiley Naman Strasser. Mauricio Marte and Celeste Lanuza are understudies.
• Produced by The Latino Theater Company

WHEN:
March 26 – May 3
• Previews: March 26 – April 3
• Performances: April 4 – May 3
Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.

WHERE:
The Los Angeles Theatre Center
514 S. Spring Street
Los Angeles CA 90013

PARKING:
• $8 with box office validation at Los Angeles Garage Associate Parking structure, 545 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90013 (between 5th and 6th Streets, just behind the theater)
• Metered parking available on streets surrounding the theater.
• Take the Metro: nearest stop is Pershing Square (two blocks west of The LATC)

TICKET PRICES:
$10-$48 (except opening matinee)
• Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (except April 4 opening matinee): $48
• Students, Seniors, Veterans and LAUSD teachers: $24 with valid ID
• All Thursday night performances and previews: $10
• Family Pack (two adults and two children): $100, with a $20 add-on ticket for additional guests; available for performances on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays except previews and the opening matinee on Saturday, April 4
• Opening matinee (April 4): $75 (includes post-performance reception)

MORE:
Level Up! is appropriate for ages 10 and up. Free child care for kids ages 4 and up, featuring fun, age-appropriate activities led by a trusted childcare team, will be provided during Saturday matinee performances; all participants must be potty-trained.

HOW:
latinotheaterco.org
(213) 489-0994