Manuel (Xavier Pacheco, left) and Johaira (Maribel Martinez) start out their romance with a shared love of a bachata , a Dominican style of music, in Guadalís Del Carmen’s Bees & Honey.
Romantic relationships can be a bushel of complex emotions. In her new play, Bees & Honey, Guadalís Del Carmen explores the intricacies of a Dominican American couple living in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. The play begins with a segment in which its two principals talk about Juan Luis Guerra’s bachata song, “Como Abeja al Panal” (i.e., “like a bee to its honeycomb”), which inspired the title Bees & Honey. The composer Guerra, as described in the play, “is and will always be the Beethoven of Latin America.”
The couple, Johaira (Maribel Martinez) and Manuel (Xavier Pacheco), explain the rhythm and syncopations needed to be in sync with your partner when dancing bachata”—a popular style of song from the Dominican Republic. “You really gotta be in step with your partner,” says Johaira, one half of the Dominican married couple. “Sharing a moment, un feeling.” This sensual dance brought Johaira and Manuel together eight years ago and, ever since, they have followed their unique rhythm, trying their hardest not to lose their footing.
The marriage of Manuel and Johaira starts out happily.
Johaira is a lawyer who specializes in sexual assault cases, and Manuel is a mechanic/entrepreneur who owns his shop and is looking to open more in the other boroughs. They are both successful in their careers and their marriage—at first. Pacheco and Martinez nail their roles with passion and chemistry. Director Melissa Crespo has cast the two talented performers perfectly. Del Carmen includes multiple sentences and words in Spanish, and they capture the feeling of each character.
As the play continues, Johaira and Manuel’s relationship grows and evolves. They have created a home and union filled with love. Their careers start to take off, which means less time together in and out of the house. They partake in complicated conversations about the nature of Johaira’s demanding legal work. She seeks justice and serves as the voice for the survivors. She pushes her beliefs on Manuel, urging him to read books on feminism and often correcting the way he speaks about women. Manuel doesn’t mind, which is heartening to see. He respects, loves and accepts Johaira for who she is. He grudgingly agrees to do her required reading, and eventually is happy he learned new concepts. He even recommends some books to his colleagues.
Johaira also learns from Manuel, although she may not fully realize it as much. Manuel shows her true love and the extent to which people can and will go to express it. He often expresses his love by addressing her as his, “better half, my significant other, my partner in all things, mi media naranja.” Del Carmen’s script is refreshing in portraying a Latino man with depth and layers. Manuel tries hard to make Johaira happy and their marriage work.
The couple gradually grow distant and fight more and more often. Photographs by Julieta Cervantes.
Unfortunately, as the play progresses, their relationship starts to deteriorate. Losing a high-profile case, medical issues with Manuel’s mother, and Johaira’s miscarriage undermine their marriage. The level of strife increases, and they both reach their boiling points. In a moment of intense fighting, Manuel exclaims, “You didn’t like my hustle? OK, baby. Let me figure out what the fuck to do with myself, since all I knew was the streets and no mentors over my shoulders helping me pick colleges and shit. … You didn’t like the way I dressed when we went out? OK, mami, what the fuck should I wear to go eat at some come mierda restaurant witcho uppity girlfriends?” This blow-up leads Manuel to punch a hole in the wall (the spot on Shoko Kambara’s versatile set must need a repair after every performance); it’s a side of him Johaira has never seen.
The trauma of the miscarriage and deflated feelings after losing the case led Johaira to depression. She isolates herself from Manuel and eventually decides they should not be together anymore. She insists on a divorce.
Relationships are multidimensional, beautiful and complex. Sometimes even if a couple loves one another intensely, love may not be enough. Bees & Honey is a complicated story about a couple falling in love, creating a life together and learning to maneuver around their own ideologies and flaws.
The MCC Theater production of Bees & Honey runs through June 11 at MCC Theater (511 W. 52nd St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday through Sunday, and at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday; matinees are at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The June 7 performance will have Spanish subtitles. For tickets and more information, call the box office at (646) 506-9393 or visit mcctheater.org.
Playwright: Guadalís Del Carmen
Direction: Melissa Crespo
Sets: Shoko Kambara
Costumes: Devario D. Simmons
Lighting: Reza Behjat
Sound: Germán Martínez
