“One of the Good Ones” is a funny but uneven meditation on Mexican identity in Southern California – and perhaps everywhere. Set in upper crust Pasadena, the show starts with Ilana Gomez (Angelique Cabral) trying to negotiate a bouquet of flowers from Pedro (Santino Jimenez), a Latino delivery driver. Ilana is self-conscious (perhaps even ashamed) that she speaks almost no Spanish. With help from her fluent daughter, Yoli (Cree), she eventually makes the exchange.
The flowers are preparation for a special dinner. Yoli’s new boyfriend Marcos (Nico Greetham) is coming to meet her parents. Everyone is tense, particularly Yoli, who lectures her family on how they should behave, both with Marcos and generally.
Marcos arrives and turns out to be both Mexican and a White man, which throws everything even more off kilter. Yoli’s father, Enrique, simply cannot accept that Marcos is dating his daughter. It puts him in a mood, and he isn’t shy about sharing his opinions. If you’re thinking this sounds a bit like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, you’re dead-on.
To be fair, nobody is shy about sharing their opinions, even when they might be better off keeping them to themselves. At times, the play seems intent on exposing the hazards of poor emotional intelligence. Enrique is deeply angry at Marcos, and by extension Yoli, but the reasons are a little fuzzy.
To his credit, Marcos steps up. He is fluent in Spanish, grew up in Mexico and has dual citizenship. Enrique is unimpressed. From there, the show dives into cultural authenticity, the labels that define identity (Mexican/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine) and even the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded California to the U.S. There are numerous lectures, and some of them are quite funny, but the play’s energy takes a hit.
Cabral does a nice job as the (mostly) conflict-avoidant mom who just wants the evening to get back on track. Jimenez has a tiny role but wins the night. The set is incredibly well done, evoking quiet privilege.
“One of the Good Ones” has some really funny moments, but the setups can seem more than a bit contrived. When none of the characters have a filter, those unfiltered moments begin to get repetitive and lose punch. It’s telling that the character with the fewest lines has the best one.
