Luis Alfaro’s ‘Speaking in Tongues’ struggles to articulate its dramatic path

“Speaking in Tongues,” a new play by Luis Alfaro receiving its world premiere from Latino Theatre Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, centers on a Pentecostal church in the Central Valley that has fallen on hard times.

The pastor has either abandoned his aging flock or has been murdered, possibly by his wife, Hermana Romie (Evelina Fernández). Ever since his disappearance, she’s been haunting the neighboring cornfields, preaching cryptically, as another figure, Sister Tiri (Esperanza America), dressed in a choir robe, fervently sings “Oh Happy Day.”

The relationship between these two characters is not immediately clear. Hermana Romie seems like the madwoman of the San Joaquin Valley. Sister Tiri might be an overzealous young parishioner who can’t confine her spirit within the walls of the church.

Hermano Mando (Sal Lopez) and Hermano Tico (Geoffrey Rivas), two older congregants, shed light on the situation as they chatter on about the faltering state of affairs. Hermano Mando has been hanging around the church since his wife served him with divorce papers. Hermano Tico, who came to repair the roof, spent the night outside in the insufferable heat, unable to get down safely in the dark, with only an owl for company.

Lucy Rodriguez in “Speaking in Tongues” at the Latino Theater Company.

(Grettel Cortes Photography)

Their comic back-and-forth, full of pop-cultural references (TikTok, the true-crime documentary series “The First 48”) and confessions of venial sins, situates the action in our post-COVID moment of climate disasters and ICE emergencies. The banter, which evokes some of the elbow-nudging comedy of Culture Clash, seems to excite Alfaro more than his plot, which languishes until the play’s final stretch.

Hermana Cubby (Lucy Rodriguez), a church lady jealously proud of her award-winning potato salad, represents the “old Central Valley,” a world that’s fading into the past. Hermano Mando, Hermano Tico and Hermana Cubby know they are holdouts in a community that doesn’t seem all that intent on renewing itself. (These characters are Pentecostal cousins of the Anglican crew of Barbara Pym comic novels.)

Evelina Fernandez and Esperanza America in “Speaking in Tongues” at the Latino Theater Company.

(Grettel Cortes Photography)

The Chicano values of the younger generation aren’t in alignment with the political orientation of the pious old guard. Sister Tiri turns out to be the daughter of the missing pastor and Hermana Romie. And despite her passionate gospel singing, she doesn’t wish to continue in the family line.

She is determined to seize her independence. But before she leaves, there’s a confrontation that must take place with her mother, who has yet to recognize her own power because of the church’s antiquated gender politics.

The play, which explores the role of faith in a rapidly changing Central Valley community (the subject of Alfaro’s more successful post-pandemic play, “The Travelers”), has trouble coming into focus. The exposition (divertingly conveyed by Hermano Mando and Hermano Tico, with help from Hermana Cubby) is more alive than the domestic conflict between Hermana Romie and Sister Tiri that eventually hijacks the play.

LTC artistic director José Luis Valenzuela’s staging tries to supplement what’s not fully developed in the writing. Unfortunately, the stylized production traffics in arch gestures and heavy-handed flourishes. Valenzuela tries to turn a sketch into a theatrical painting, but the basic outline of the play doesn’t feel complete.

Prairie T Trivuth’s multi-tiered scenic design constructs a visually arresting topography, but Yee Eun Nam’s projections flirt with sappy bird imagery and other visual cliches. And the vertical layout, making the most of a challengingly steep venue, creates acoustic challenges for a play that demand clear articulation, (Lopez’s Hermano Mando, while unfailingly charming and amusing, sometimes swallows his lines.)

“Speaking in Tongues” is still finding its dramatic voice. Part of the problem is the way Hermana Romie and Sister Tiri are introduced. Fernández, who wrote “Antigone: In the Language of Kings” that Valenzuela directed at the Getty Villa earlier this season, is guided into overheated operatic gestures, silent screams and paroxysms of anguish that might have seemed too much even for Maria Callas or Anna Magnani.

But the bigger issue is that Alfaro seems more inspired by the comic possibilities of the church elders than he is by the Important Themes of Romie and Tiri’s spiritual standoff. The small talk of “Speaking in Tongues” unbalances the drama, but the life of the play belongs to Hermano Mando, Hermano Tico and Hermana Cubby.

Maybe Alfaro should take a page from Pym and give the comic spotlight to those stalwarts of the parish community, who keep showing up when no one else will. There’s drama enough in their ordinary perseverance.