MTC’s Mañana captures real-life struggles, passions

Elizabeth Irwin’s My Mañana Comes cuts through any pretense and gets right to the heart of real life in these United States. In so much of the entertainment we consume (and, truth be told, in the lives we lead), the people Irwin writes about here are on the fringes, working diligently to make modern life run smoothly and efficiently but without much consideration from those whose lives their work benefits. In this case, the focus is on four bus boys in a busy Manhattan restaurant. Two are Mexican immigrants, one here for four years, the other just a few months. The other two are American born. One is African American and the other is born to Mexican immigrants but without much connection to his parents’ native culture (he says he thought he was Puerto Rican until was a teenager).

Hearing these voices on stage, experiencing the lives of these men is reason enough to see My Mañana Comes – the humanity, the empathy, the struggle that come through is powerful and, in many ways, universal. Any examined life, as they say, will yield great drama and complexity, and that’s certainly true here. These men are dealing with issues of race, economy, immigration, self-respect and ethics in ways that can have profound impact on their lives like where they sleep that night, how to avoid the police or how to save money when it costs so much to live in New York (especially when you’re eyeing a new pair of Nike sneakers).

‘My Mañana Comes’ a striking portrait of busboys

For the first 80 minutes of its 90-minute running time, Marin Theatre Company’s (MTC) Bay Area premiere of Elizabeth Irwin’s My Mañana Comes provides a strikingly realistic portrait of what the workaday routine is like for four men who are struggling to survive in New York City on the lowest rung of the restaurant job ladder. Being dependent on minimum wages and a share of tips isn’t easy.

This is their story, one the program tells us Irwin knows first-hand because of her extensive experience in the foodservice industry before turning to a career in theater. She says she wrote the play to draw attention to these nearly invisible people who, despite adversity, manage to find humor and camaraderie in everyday living. Above all, they never let go of their dreams. Instead, their attitude seems to be Yes, today may be bad. We may suffer indignity and threats to our income, but at least we have a job, and when mañana comes … !

Private Eyes

In a near balletic production at Marin Theater Company, My Mañana Comes follows four hard-working busboys at an upscale restaurant in New York City. Set entirely on the prep side of the bustling kitchen (we never see a single waitperson), Irwin's brilliant script pulls us in immediately, and director Kirsten Brandt keeps things hopping as the quartet of actors bus dishes, prep plates of food, slice fruit and vegetables (using real knives) and rush in and out of swinging doors with a grace and energy that would be impressive even if they weren't also giving deep, fleshed-out and fully engaging performances.

Peter (Shaun Patrick Tubbs) and Jorge (Eric Avilés) have worked in the restaurant the longest, and each tries to school the two newer bussers, Whalid (Caleb Carera) and Pepe (Carlos Jose Gonzales Morales), in his own way. A bit of competition is natural, but when management cuts their pay, the way these four invisible men collide is eye-opening and entirely devastating.

Busboys’ work-a-day world comes to light in ‘My Mañana Comes’

Elizabeth Irwin’s “My Mañana Comes” brings to light what goes on behind the scenes at a high-class Manhattan eatery. And it ends with a big, effective jolt that clearly illustrates the playwright’s points about injustices facing minority workers who earn pitifully substandard wages.

In the end, the contrasting plights of all four come to the fore, quite dramatically, as they face the reality of wage cuts. When real life at last kicks in, “My Mañana Comes” packs a punch.

“Clever and fast-paced — 4 Stars”

“Eye-opening and entirely devastating” 

“My Mañana Comes”: Real busboys of the Upper East Side

If you’ve never given much thought to the role of busboys at upscale restaurants, Elizabeth Irwin’s compact “My Mañana Comes” should be a tonic eye-opener. The same may be said for some of the immigration issues that come up in Irwin’s play. Those takeaways, plus some fine performances, are the greatest strengths of the fairly engrossing play that opened Tuesday, Nov. 3, at Marin Theatre Company. But they also reflect its limitations.

Irwin, an emerging New York playwright who’s making her Bay Area debut with “Mañana,” has a good eye for people and jobs that usually get overlooked and a keen ear for dialogue that crackles with the distinctive characteristics of common speech — including the differences between workplace and street speech, not to mention the degrees of learning English as a second language. She uses those features skillfully to build four distinct characters, and wields the politics and economics of their particular workplace humorously and realistically to create bonds and drive wedges between them.

Money is tight for all four, and Irwin carefully builds in that reality to make the crux of her story an abrupt, significant cutback in their earnings and its dramatic impact on their relationships. No one emerges as a hero, but each character’s actions are perfectly believable.

But in this tight and compact a telling, the clarity with which things play out makes the drama feel more like an object lesson — an effect that could be minimized in the kind of narrative possible in a film medium. As it is, “Mañana” is an enjoyable evening with some standout moments, particularly when Tubbs’ or Avilés’ eyes convey an inner struggle, all the more significant for being unspoken. But as good a story as it is, it might be better suited for the big or small screen.

Theater review: Busboys work hard for the money in MTC’s My Mañana Comes

The setup for “My Mañana Comes,” the new play at Marin Theatre Company, sounds fairly prosaic. It’s about four busboys at an upscale Manhattan restaurant that are scraping just to get by, especially when they suddenly start having a harder time getting paid. But playwright Elizabeth Irwin builds up the characters so effectively — their winning personalities, their camaraderie and their responsibilities and aspirations —that when it seems like the life they’re building is on the verge of slipping away the tension becomes nearly unbearable.

At a time when the minimum wage, health benefits, family leave and workers’ right to organize are under attack in this country, “My Mañana Comes” makes the viewer feel viscerally how hard it can be for hard-working people to get by and how easily it can all get taken away. And when those workers are exploited just because management knows how badly they need this job, would take a heart of stone not to become incensed on their behalf.

"Engrossing”

“My Mañana Comes packs a punch.” 

“Gets right to the heart of real life”