It isn’t the first time Nicole Stodard has tangoed with the work of feminist groundbreaking Cuban-American playwright Maria Irene Fornés.
When her Fort Lauderdale-based Thinking Cap Theatre company opens the 2023-2024 season with “Tango Palace” on Friday, Oct. 27, it will mark their third Fornés play, in fact — following productions of stark two-hander “Mud” in 2016 and the immersive, eight-woman “Fefu and Her Friends” last year.
This latest production, a dark, absurdist comedy that explores relationships, power struggles, compromise and lack thereof, will run through Friday, Nov. 3, in the Abdo New River Room at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The two-person play features Isidore, a clown (played by Autumn Kioti Horne), and Leopold (Leah Sessa), described as a naive youth by the playwright.
“After doing ‘Mud,’ I wanted to do more of her plays, but I didn’t know what the timeline would be,” says Stodard, the company’s founder and artistic director. “There is just so much about her life and her work that resonates with me.”
Born in Havana, Cuba, Fornés was a prolific author, with nearly 40 plays, and a pioneer of the 1960s Off-Off Broadway movement. She was also considered an originator of immersive theater, yet her influential career was somewhat overshadowed by her notoriety as the ex-lover of writer and social critic Susan Sontag.
In 2018, when Fornes was in an assisted living facility in New York, Stodard and daughter Violet visited the playwright. “It wasn’t long before she died on Oct. 30 that we went to see her and sang to her,” she recalls. Fornés died that year at age 88 after suffering from dementia.
The depth of knowledge about the playwright led to Stodard, who has a doctorate in English with a specialization in drama from the University of South Florida, being asked to contribute a chapter for a Cambridge University Press “Literature in Context” book dedicated to Fornés’ four-decade career. Through that research, it became clear to Stodard that she wanted to produce “Tango Palace” — and she wanted to approach it differently than it had ever been done before.
She’s cast the play featuring two women in the roles of Isidore and Leopold, which is a first, according to Stodard. In her lifetime, Fornés worked on a production with two men and another with a man and a woman.
“Our casting honors the play’s origins in the tumultuous relationship between Fornes and Sontag, who were lovers from 1960 to 1963,” Stodard says.
Fornés wrote the play during a 19-day hiatus from Sontag, she says. “Beyond all the other layers that are in this play — the influence of absurdist Samuel Beckett on her work, of Oscar Wilde’s wit, and the modern camp style that Sontag captured in her landmark essay, “Notes on ‘Camp’” — there is also a lesbian love story in the origins of the play …
“As is true with much of the playwright’s work, ‘Tango Palace’ stresses character rather than plot,” Stodard adds. “It’s a dark, funny and whimsical examination of perilous passion that tests the limits of ‘all is fair in love and war.’ ”
The two actresses tasked with bringing the characters to life say it has been a deeply meaningful experience.
“Working on this play has been extremely freeing,” says Sessa. “There is so much self-analysis that has to go into dissecting this kind of play. Knowing the inside scoop to Irene and Susan’s relationship has made dissecting the script even more interesting.”
The actress likens her daily work on the show to getting “free therapy.”
Adds Kioti Horne: “It’s risky, it’s absurd and it’s disturbing in the best way. In the arts, we are so often beholden to our pocketbooks; I have to thank (Thinking Cap Theatre) for taking it on and for having cultivated an audience who is ready and willing to jump on this rollercoaster with us.”
Stodard believes the new performing location at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts may attract audiences that haven’t experienced one of the company’s productions.
“I hope the piece will awaken a sense of curiosity and wonder … and bring an appreciation to the unique talents of this playwright who used innovative storytelling methods to explore very real, raw and human emotions. This play is truly among the most daring works we’ve ever staged. And that’s saying a lot.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Thinking Cap Theatre presents “Tango Palace”
WHEN: Oct. 27-Nov. 3 (with talkbacks after some performances and free public programming; visit thinkingcaptheatre.eventbrite.com)
WHERE: Broward Center for the Performing Arts’ Abdo New River Room, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
COST: $45 for general admission; $20 for student rush tickets at the door (age 21 and younger with valid student ID)
INFORMATION: 954-610-7263; thinkingcaptheatre.org
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