Family dynamics can change on a dime, especially when there’s been a funeral. In Emilio T. Infante’s world premiere Choke: Sucede hasta en las mejores familias, now playing at GALA Hispanic Theatre, Esperanza and Gonzalo Guerrero, a retired Latino couple, are barely making ends meet in a downturned area of Baltimore. They’ve devoted their lives working in a refinery to provide for their pride and joy, daughter Casandra, who left her childhood home and created her own life in Los Angeles. When Casandra returns for the funeral services of a loving aunt, tensions rise even before she steps in the door. Sucede hasta en las mejores familias (happens in the best of families), indeed.
Giselle González plays Casandra as a no-nonsense achiever who has pulled herself into a higher socio-economic status by getting out. She’s so frustrated with her family’s refusal to budge from their dilapidated surroundings that she’s at an impasse trying to convince them and they haven’t spoken in a year. Her stubbornness causes her to butt heads with her also-stubborn father, Gonzalo, played by an irascible Gerardo Ortiz González, whose zest for life sinks slowly as his chronic respiratory ailment deteriorates, not unlike the near crumbling house. María del Mar Rodríguez plays his wife, Esperanza, with enough resilient energy to keep them afloat in such environmentally hazardous conditions that sirens routinely go off warning of potential air disaster from the refinery. Adding to the shaky family dynamics, Casandra brings her new spouse, wife Zulema, played with charming peacemaking skills and wonderful bilingual Spanish by Joi Kai. Playful backdrop projections by Hailey LaRoe of the Baltimore skyline and Orioles’ Stadium also showed huge refinery tanks looming in the background and even heart-stopping footage of the Key Bridge collapse. That the workers killed in the catastrophe were of Latino heritage added to the immediate turmoil. Something’s got to give.
Choke displays family values trying to adjust to the shifting conditions around them. The stellar cast brings the issues front and center with a father so hell-bent on relishing the American Dream that he refuses to see how much the dream has deferred. Gerardo Ortiz González is a treasure to watch, dragging his oxygen tank in stride with humorous quips. His interactions with the family show his depth of love and devotion, scrambling to understand the shifting social dynamics in his life while coming to grips with his precious daughter’s choices and love interest. Last he heard there was a girlfriend in the picture. Now face to face with his daughter’s wife, his world has definitely turned topsy-turvy. He tries to stay grounded while breathing becomes more laborious and his preconceptions and pride are challenged. Through it all, Esperanza juggles the bills, covers up a hole in the flooring, and confronts insect infestations — she is unstoppable, noting that crying only makes it harder to fight when you can’t see clearly through the tears. María Del Mar Rodríguez captures the caring spirit of Esperanza as she bonds with Zulema in smoothing the conditions and keeping down the sparks between father and daughter.
It’s not often that we find a new work that successfully tackles so much socio-dynamic territory and is so topically relevant, universal, and geographically germane all at once. Directed by Gustavo Ott with fully expressed characters living in an environmental powder keg, Choke is a look at a family helping us come to grips with aspects of who we are and every community’s reckoning with its own becoming.
Running Time: Approximately two hours and 15 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.
Choke: Sucede hasta en las mejores familias plays through May 18, 2025 (Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm), at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th Street NW, Washington, DC. Purchase tickets online. Regular tickets are $48, Thursdays and Sundays; $50, Fridays and Saturdays; $35, seniors (65+), military, and groups (10+); $25, 25 and under. For more information, visit galatheatre.org or call (202) 234-7174.
In Spanish with English surtitles.
The playbill for Choke: Sucede hasta en las mejores familias is downloadable here (scroll down).
Choke: Sucede hasta en las mejores familias
By Emilio T. Infante
CAST
Gonzalo: Gerardo Ortiz González
Casandra: Giselle González
Esperanza: María Del Mar Rodríguez
Zulema: Joi Kai
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Direction & Spanish Translation: a
Scenic Design: Grisele González
Lighting and Production Design: Haley LaRoe
Sound Design: Konstantine Lortkipanidze
Costume Design: Rukiya Henry-Fields
Properties Design: Tessa Grippaudo
Hair & Make-up: Andre Hopper
Production Manager: Ilyana Rose-Dávila
Technical Director: Matty Griffiths
Stage Manager: Grace Rodríguez
COVID Safety: All performances are mask-optional. See GALA’s complete COVID-19 Safety Policy.