Review: In "Lío," Trouble Rides the Waves to Puerto Rico
Lío Written by Ian Robles Directed by Mario Colón Presented by Teatro Círculo 64 East 4th Street, Manhattan, NYC March 15-31, 2024 Presented in Spanish and English with English supertitles Karina Curet, Bryan J. Cortés, and Jorge Sánchez Díaz. Photo by Rubén Darío Cruz The opening of Puerto Rican playwright Ian Robles's Lío , making its world premiere as part of bilingual theater company Teatro Círculo's 30th anniversary season, finds its title character laying prone with a long rope, which it transpires is connected to a fishing net, tied around his wrist. This opening image suggests a man in bondage as much as it does a fisherman, and nets, which dominate the set design, continue as a metaphor through this sharp, entrancing, sometimes dreamlike critique of imperialism, which sees Teatro Círculo back at its newly renovated home on East 4th Street. But first, Lío, whose name could be translated as trouble or mess, drags up something from the sea that portends seismic changes b