Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

THE REAL JAMES BOND…WAS DOMINICAN closes this weekend at City Theatre. I think you should check it out.

While I am no James Bond fan, I do appreciate his legacy in contemporary culture so the title caught my attention. Turns out Porfirio Rubirosa, a Dominican diplomat, race car driver, soldier and polo player who’s believed to be the inspiration for the famous character ‘James Bond’.

Who knew? Apparently Fleming took a living, breathing Latino and made him white aka more palatable for his readers. That’s not particularly shocking given our penchant for appropriation. But that exploitive backstory is disheartening.

This show took us back to the the Lillee Theatre  the 102-seat black box theater in the back and to the left. It has been awhile since I was there. It is more intimate than the upstairs Main Stage Theatre. However, it is a free for all in terms of seating which unnerves me. I need to sit on an aisle so we spent a lot of energy searching for an aisle seat +1. But we managed. And the intimacy is magnetic in this show.

Christopher Rivas starts out casually walking around the stage in his underwear. Not fancy or sexy underwear. Just an undershirt and briefs. It is like your Dad or your brother casually walking about their home decent enough for the household, but not for company. He eventually puts on the famous James Bond tuxedo, bit by bit, layering himself from a Dominican kid in NYC eager to fit in to a Dominican man both inhabiting and deconstructing the Bond mythos. He wasn’t just a Latino Bond.

I learned a lot about Dominican culture and how masking works from building supers to famous playboys.

Here’s what bothered me. Porfirio Rubirosa or Rubi was a complicated man. It is undeniable that colonialism had damaged him. He drank to excess, raced cars without care, and may even have been an assassin for the government.

I don’t think Rivas did justice to Rubi’s abuse of women. He had a lot of lovers and romances and affairs. His demons surfaced and he treated those women like objects. Rivas does address it, but I thought he skipped over it to make Rubi a tragic figure.

You can be a victim of colonizers who makes horrific decisions that creates other victims. People around the world demonstrate that each day. That dichotomy is another layer of colonization. But it is inexcusable.

Did James Bondy have to be white to avoid the baggage of colonization – the wars, the machinations, the hedonistic lifestyles? Is that what Fleming was trying to do – to strip Rubi down to a set of character traits with just a hint of the underlying personality that pulled them together? There’s no doubt Fleming appropriate this larger than life person.

But Rubi was a man who abused women. That can’t be parsed. It is understandable that a child looking for a hero would not be exposed to this darker side. But as he aged, he learned. Rivas talks repeatedly of Rubi lightening his skin, having work on his nose, styling his hair to lighten himself, to be more white. But what about the darkness he inflicted on women? I think we know now he would have been a better man if he had done that work to change his inner-self than chase after fame.

I don’t think Rivas ever used the term ‘machismo’ which is an interesting choice. He certainly explored the impact of masculinity on Rubi, his own father, and himself. But he dissected it from the toxicity and didn’t challenge the way white folx understand machismo. I honestly don’t know if machismo is a Dominican concept, but the perception that all Latine men embody this is very relevant to the themes of the show.

The show bounces back and forth from Rivas’ childhood to his own adult struggles as a brown man in a very white industry. After all if James Bond was Dominican, why can’t Latine actors play ‘classic roles’ or those that are not dependent on racial casting?

Rivas was accompanied by who drummed, managed the special sound effects, and even tied the tuxedo tie. At first, I was a little distracted but eventually the pulsating rhythm merged into Rivas’ storytelling and use of the stage.

I was dismayed when the white women behind me (also a white woman) made some remarks – they oohed over the idea of Black British actor Idris Elba as Bond (he’s not) because Elba is ‘hot’ and then ripped down Daniel Craig as ‘ugly.’ Their objectification of the exotic Black man and rudeness toward Craig made me think we had just watched two different shows. Casting Elba would have been significant because he’s a good actor and he’s Black for all the reasons Rivas had painstakingly laid out for us. Not because he’s hot.

But maybe I was just cranky.

There was a post-show talk circle scheduled, but I opted out. One thing about Pittsburgh theatre is the significant proportion of precious self-congratulations and white privilege. It is exhausting observing a room of white folks prove their wokeness to BIPOC creators. I commend Rivas and crew for sharing this story, thus creating opportunity for people to examine everything.

Rivas and company made great use of the space to interact, to pull the audience into the narrative. I was very pleased at the beginning when they encouraged everyone to take a selfie and post on social media. I always do that, usual holding my program up against the set.

City Theatre would do well to incorporate these tactics into the program – list social media accounts for CT and the show, asking people to take that photo, etc. Lots of free publicity.

If you can get to City Theatre this weekend, please do. This show is a conversation we all need to have. If this show is elsewhere, go there. Pay attention to what’s next at City Theatre and go see that. Live theater is a critical tool to change the world.