Rep’s ‘Espejos: Clean’ Is Fascinating Clash of Cultures

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Espejos: Clean in the Stiemke Studio, April 8 – May 11, 2025. Pictured: Dylan Brown as Sarah and Regina Carregha as Adriana. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Clever technical interplay is the most fascinating element of what will be the Milwaukee Rep’s last show in the Stiemke Studio Theater (which is not going away; it will be enlarged under a new name next season).

Two capable actresses revealing loneliness, childhood abuse and family isolation provide clarity of feelings in Espejos: Clean. Their bodies may crisscross each other onstage but their experiences are separated by their language and their stations in life, each revealing family experiences or wishes to the audience. Until the intermission, that is. Then the similarities and differences more directly clash together.

Adriana, played by Regina Carregha, has risen from maid at a fancy Cancun resort to manager of the housekeeping staff. She is brisk and business-like as she reveals and reminds us in her Spanish monologues, which are dotted with her on-point comic interpretation of the way rich white guests sound in their haughtiness.

Sarah, played by Dylan Brown, is the often drunken and reluctant member of a status-centered wedding party, mocking her own ineptitude while commenting on the resort, or fancifully hiding in her own room. Her reflections are in English.

So how is it possible we intimately understand both, even if we only understand one of the languages? Playwright Christine Quintana interlocks the two women’s problems as reverse sides of the same coin (don’t forget: “Espejos“ in the title means mirrors).

As one speaks in Spanish, the translation into English appears in flipping projected titles — on the walls behind her and on the scrims that are drawn like curtains across the long rectangular stage (where the fancy cabana is suggested by a guest room with a bed on one side, then various sitting places and a bathtub that stands in for a beach, a pool and a shower).

As the other character speaks in English, the title interpretations switch to Spanish (all done by adapter Paula Zelaya Cervantes), clearer titles on the scrim, a bit harder to read on the backscreen for those with poorer vision. But in the second half, as we get used to the process, the titles disappear, the women actually attempt to talk to each other and language barriers diminish in the conflict between two cultures. The program lists the cast and bios side by side in both languages.

The description of the methods may sound complicated, but the technical polish is quite sophisticated and satisfying, as is the use of sound and projections. This is a show that began in a 2022 collaboration between California’s South Coast Repertory and a Vancouver theater company, an outline picked up by the Rep. Mexican American playwright Quintana has done lots of work in Canada.

The production mixes in some technical pros that Rep audiences are familiar with (scenic designer Luciana Stecconi and costume designer Mieka van der Ploeg) along with crafts experts new to the Stiemke.

The actors are new here, too. The guest director, Juliette Carrillo, encourages them to clear rapid delivery that fits their characters and serves up fluid movements (even some statue-like interaction where one grasps the other).

The contrast in appearance and behavior — one assuredly white rich, the other Mexican poor in upbringing but intent on bettering herself — is called for in the script and taken full advantage of here in the body types. As Adriana, Carregha stands out in how her physical self-control gives way to her passion while Brown as Sarah has the funniest lines and most impulsive moments. Sarah is culturally naïve in how she reaches out to Adriana, while Adriana is unsure whether she should even be reacting to a hotel guest as an equal.

Audiences only fluent in one of the languages may lean on the titles to follow the story, but the actors make their soliloquies (which is sort of what the play is all about) easy to understand whatever your language. Even better if you know both.

Humor is in seesaw with anguish, though some of the early conflicts give way to flights of surreal thinking and, at the end, memories and social conflict that come across as too pat. The clash of cultures is quite interesting, but it is the methods of the storytelling that dominate our memory.

After Espejos: Clean closes May 11, the Stiemke (named after late patrons Olive and Walter Stiemke) will be expanded in capacity and modernized into the Herro-Franke Studio Theater (honoring two donors who have given $5 million in gifts). The Rep recommends audiences above age 13 because of the language and discussion of child abuse within the play. More information is at https://www.milwaukeerep.com/shows/show/espejos-clean/

Espejos: Clean Gallery

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Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blog here and here.