Destiny of Desire

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Two babies are switched at birth in a Mexican hospital during a thunderstorm, and if you already know exactly how you feel about that sentence, this was built for you. Karen Zacarias wrote a telenovela for the stage and then refused to wink at it, which is the trick that makes it work. The secret twins, the scheming heiress, the strategic fainting - all of it is played with total commitment by actors who then step out between scenes, drop the accent, and hand you real statistics about poverty and womanhood in Latin America before diving straight back into the melodrama. It is affectionate toward the form and it keeps a knife behind its back the entire time. Anyone raised within earshot of a grandmother's evening stories will recognize the rhythm immediately, down to the organ sting that lands on every revelation. Weeknight performances begin at 7:30pm, and the Mark Taper Forum run opens November 11 and continues downtown through December 20. Somebody in your family narrates these out loud at the screen. Take them, and watch them realize the play is doing it too.