I don’t know why I instinctively rebel against reading new plays by Quiara Alegría Hudes. Almost certainly it’s a combination of my thinking that the first (and until today, only) thing I read from her I thought was exceptionally weak (the book of In the Heights) or because she’s a bit over-exposed in my area of the country so she’s standing in as the kind of “important” work that crowds out the work I prefer (and think would draw more audiences in.)

Regardless, I’ve had Water by the Spoonful for six months (not that long considering the stack of plays on my floor,) and resisted reading it because its synopsis and pulitzer prize pushed me to thinking it’d be a slog.

What I found instead was a touching, difficult story of the type I’ve been asking for: human-stakes comedies.

Water by the Spoonful follows two storylines of grief, addiction, and loneliness which braid together at the end of the first act and drive to a crushing conclusion:

In 2009 Elliot Ortiz is a struggling actor and veteran who spends his time with his cousin Yazmin, an accomplished woman who is not where she wants to be in life. Early in the play Elliot learns his mother has died (who is the matriarch of the family) and the rest of the play deals with him and Yazmin making arrangements and honoring her memory, while plotting their course for the future.

Meanwhile their relative, Odessa Ortiz, runs an online community for people struggling with drug addiction (that’s what’s pictured above,) how they support each other, lie to each other, need each other. We learn over the course of the play that Odessa has committed some egregious wrongs against Elliot which she cannot or will not apologize for, even as it’s clear that Elliot has the seeds of addiction inside him and hates both himself, Odessa, and the chat room for their perceived weakness.

To say more would risk giving too many surprises away, suffice to say thought the ending is not an easy one, it is one that shows all of our characters, in weakness and in strength, choosing to reach out for connection in a world that is difficult and gives nothing but struggle.

Often moving, frequently funny, the play tiptoes to the line of melodrama a few times and I hope all directors and actors have the fortitude to not trip past it, but otherwise Water by the Spoonful is a thoughtful, entertaining show about challenging subject matter.