Be Careful! The Sharks Will Eat You!
The Studios of Key West presents off-Broadway theatre at its finest with “Be Careful! The Sharks Will Eat You!” on January 28, 29, and 30. A spellbinding solo piece presented by masterful performer Jay Alvarez, the story relates a family’s perilous escape from Cuba, told from the perspective of a young boy. “Sharks” has performed to sold out audiences in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, and won “Best of Hollywood Fringe” and “Top Solo Performance, Fringe NYC. The one-man show, written and performed by Alvarez, and developed and directed by Theresa Gambacorta, is equal parts oral family history and guided tour of prerevolutionary Cuba.
From the sultry glitz and glamour of Havana nightlife in the 1950s to the dangers of the coming revolution, Alvarez morphs quickly, dynamically and dramatically from character to character, old and young, male and female, as he depicts the story of his family’s decision to set sail into the dark, shark-infested Caribbean Sea in 1964, in a boat that barely held his family. The show is a harrowing but uplifting tribute to Alvarez’s mother and father who risked all to be with their children, at a time when many families were parted forever.
The hero of the story is Alvarez’s father, who realized an uncertain future in the United States was better than staying Cuba, and Alvarez does a mesmerizing job of expressing all the confusion, hope and fear that accompanied the family’s journey. There are also bits of humor and cultural flare, as Alvarez uses a few props to channel a half-dozen characters to help tell the harrowing and uplifting story.
Tickets are $35/$30 mbrs, and are available at 305-296-0458 or can be purchased online at www.tskw.org.
Images: Jay Alvarez transforms himself into many different characters in “Sharks”.
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