​'References' Dreams of Love(making) and Magic

In any dialogue, there exist forces in opposition. “References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot,” which runs Oct. 16-Oct.24 on the Loeb Mainstage, aims to demonstrate forces bending and breaking in pairs: coyote and housecat; moon and memory; teenage boy and wild fantasy; war and manhood. Through all these potentially confusing, conflicting fragments, “References” hopes to imbue complex real-world questions of love and loneliness with otherworldly elements of magic realism.

This production of “References” is a new, unpublished adaption of Rivera’s original play by the author himself. The play tells the story of Benito (Eli K. Rivas ’16) and Gabriela (Juliana N. Sass ’17), a married couple newly reunited after Benito’s deployment in the Persian Gulf War. The new script leaves the central characters in place but puts a twist on other aspects of the play. The adapted version has never before been produced; visiting director Kat Yen cites the chance to bring the work to life as a special moment. “It's such an honor and rare opportunity to get to direct a new draft of a play that I've been in love with since college,” Yen says. Yen is also confident in the show’s appeal—especially to college students who, like Gabriela and Benito, are in a transitional stage. “I feel like the play is very relatable - growing up and deciding what parts of you and people/things around you [that] you want to keep and which ones you've outgrown,” Yen says.

Rivas agrees; although he does not personally identify with the “machismo” actions of Benito—an army man filled with (too much) pride and (perhaps too much) love—he does feel that other parts of his role will be relatable. “Whether or not you've experienced love, I think it's a topic that many Harvard students can connect to, and I hope that the way it's explored in the show will really affect people in unexpected ways,” Rivas says. Sass also sees the show as pertinent to deeper, universal human experiences. “This show is relevant to Harvard students (and to all human beings) because it's a meditation on what it means to be lonely, what it means to be in love, and the desperate desire to interact with the things we can't understand,” she says.