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REVIEWS
Drama-Logue
Theatre Reviews pg 22
The Carbonell Sisters from Havana
This could be the start of something, if not really big, then maybe half-hour weekly TV sitcom; and it should feature these very same actresses as the Carbonell sisters. They are very much from, and of, Havana in 1949 pre-Castro Cuba.
The sisters we meet in their comfy though crowded little Obispo Street home in Havana are all pretty, charmingly Hispanic, vivacious, and such good company we wouldn't at all mind visiting them every week or so. Definitely a family, they are united in close bonds of sisterhood...
Sweet-faced Emma Mio Plays widowed Maria Eugenia, the gentle, feminine, piously Roman Catholic sister. A born housewife, she typifies the ideal Cuban woman of the '40'. "calm, cool, collected, and she never, never complains." (Maria Curie plays Maria Eugenia in the Spanish language stagings.) ...
Peppery Marabina Jaimes complains bitterly and often as sister Maria Rosa...Maria Rosa seeks help from a "spiritual medium, " to the horror of Maria Eugenia.
Lucious-looking Odalys Nanin is flirty sister Maria Elena, already twice divorced and so young; she works in a bank, but her true vocation is conquetry. Elena Martinez, of velvety voice and commanding presence, is spinsterish school-teacher sister Maria Elvira.
Performances in Spanish are said to be consistently sold-out. As an extra attraction, Cuban food served during intermission on the outdoor patio is catered by Ivan Suarez of La Bamba Caribbean Restaurant.
A genuine feeling of ensemble and sisterhood enlivens this pleasant entertainment by, with, and of Hispanic women.
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