Samora la Perdida and Christine Carmela (background) Photo by Joan Marcus

Lolita (Christine Carmela), a Boricuan transgender woman, brings a gun to the offices of Promesa (Puerto Rican Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act) and intends to use it to slay everyone on the board. She immediately meets a Receptionist (Samora la Perdida), who provides a stunning drag show, complete with a resplendent array of outfits, one following the other, for an hour and forty-five minutes or so.

The United States Congress and Barack Obama created, in 2016, the board which they hoped would help eradicate Puerto Rico's very large debt. Such colonization did not allow for great input from people native to Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria devastated the country the following year. Prospects were grim.

Lolita arrives at the Wall Street office looking for retribution. The Receptionist recommends that Lolita could best realize her intent by gunning down seven board members who, one by one, come on stage in drag. Samora la Perdida is gifted as she flips from one electrifying identity to the next. Her impersonations are original and startling. Arthur Wilson's costuming is positively other-worldly in the most positive sense. The Receptionist reappears in wildly expressive drag-style wardrobe. Lolita "fires" a glitter gun at one after another of the individuals.

The two striking actors, well-versed with these roles, display distinctive timing. Each, in different ways, is disciplined. Christina Carmela wears, for the most part, a gray suit which appears to be constricting. Samora la Perdida, on the other hand, breaks out energetically with every new costume. At the performance I attended, a significant portion of the audience seemed more thrilled with each of her imaginative ensembles than with anything else. The bright, shining colors encourage the actor to flaunt each new costume while playing to the crowd.

Scenic designer Patti Panyakaew, a third year M.F.A. candidate at Yale's David Geffen School of Drama, has devised a long, large rectangular area which comprises a part of the New York City office. Additionally, the space becomes a stage for the drag performer. There's a another level below for video cameras and mirrors. Should one sit far off, it's not possible to see exactly what goes on beneath the primary platform.

Director/choreographer Javier Antonio González was the dramaturg when the play opened in New York and, as someone who grew up in Puerto Rico, lends further authenticity to the proceedings. Yung-Hung Sung's lighting is arresting, sometimes glaring, and Joyce Ciesil's sounds blast throughout the theater. A theatregoer whose senses are compromised could have difficulty tolerating some of the show's remarkable effects.

This is all notable theatre (part comic, part dramatic) but its social and political relevancy could be augmented. Playwright Mara Veléz Meléndez, raised in Puerto Rico, writes skillfully and she acutely delineates her two well-developed characters. There's passion behind all of the dialogue but one wishes for further explication which would challenge power and colonial control. This is not a suggestion to limit the visual enhancement. Instead, further explanation would serve to educate theatregoers and drive home one of the writer's primary objectives, which is that the Economic Stability Board was not successful.

Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members runs through May 17, 2025, at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven CT. For tickets and information, please call 203-432-1234 or visit Yalerep.org.