‘Strange Images’: Tango With Reality

“Parade of Strange Images” at the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts is not strange enough. Argentine playwright Carlos Pais’ repetitive drama vacillates between the soporific and the overwrought.

Violeta (Alejandra Flores), a faded celebrity and former intimate of Argentine tango great Carlos Gardel (Agustin Coppola), spends her days in boozy seclusion, ministered to by her long-suffering lady’s maid Beba (Margarita Stocker), with whom she shares a secret sorrow. When Beba is out of the room, Carlos’ portrait comes to life and converses with Violeta, while tango dancers swirl surrealistically around them. An interviewer’s scheduled visit sets Violeta and Beba atwitter--but the journalist (Juan Carlos Malpeli, who alternates with Ed Ricard), is an impostor with a hidden agenda.

Estela Scarlata’s set is evocative of faded greatness, while Kathi O’Donohue’s lighting effectively blurs the boundaries between reality and hallucination. In a fun, campy turn, Flores flounces like Norma Desmond on steroids, while Stocker effectively underplays her role in contrast. Potentially fascinating historical information about Gardel, however, is squandered in Pais’ formless and uneventful piece, which Margarita Galban cannot salvage through her staging. The play takes fire only during the tango sequences, choreographed by Marcos Questas. Stocker, partnered by Questas, is a superb tango dancer who gives a tantalizing taste of the passionate elegance that otherwise eludes these proceedings.

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* “Parade of Strange Images,” Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, 421 N. Ave. 19, Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Alternates weekly in Spanish and English; this weekend in Spanish. Ends May 31. $18. (213) 225-4044; (213) 226-1170. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.