Everyone wants to be an auteur. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with being an auteur, as long as you have the talent. I would even argue that the fellow artists an auteur surrounds themself with are just as important as their own sensibilities.

Back To You is a two-character play about two gay boys named Diego and Manny from McAllen, Texas who love each other, lose each other, and find each other again. It was written by Chris Rivera. It was also directed by Chris Rivera, and stars Chris Rivera. He had no assistant director. The consequence of this is that the play is both extremely self-indulgent and painfully uninteresting. The script leans on a years-long emotional journey of its heroes rather than any actionable plot, and its staging adds little (if anything) to the audience’s enjoyment of that story. The biggest feeling I was left with as I walked out was a need to listen to Selena on the way home.

Much of the script of Back to You is made up of monologues and asides. It’s not a bad idea for a script for only two, but the execution here is uncreative. The characters frequently interrupt a dialogue to turn to the audience and tell us how they feel, or what they think, or exactly what the subtext here is…all at the expense of an actor or script showing us how they feel, or how they think, or what the subtext is. We are told that Diego and Manny are happy or unhappy or afraid or in love, but we never see any of this. There’s no nuance to how either of them feel or act and no room for varied interpretations, because every monologue or aside or fourth-wall-break tells the audience exactly what’s going on. And, unfortunately, most of what is going on is just lovers (or ex-lovers) arguing. No one ever does anything. They just stand four feet apart and talk. Occasionally, they may lean against a bar. They never have an argument over lunch or while doing homework. They never put together Ikea furniture together or go to a party or drive cross-country. They do go to dinner near the end of the second act, but instead of seeing that, we just see the argument on the street corner afterwards. Their movements and volume are never heightened or confined by where they are or who might hear them. They spend time as teenagers in a hollowed-out tree, but by the way the actors move, it must be a really, really big tree.

Joe Montoya, the other half of the cast, does their very best with what’s given them. Montoya’s performance is much more realistic and natural than Rivera’s – perhaps because Rivera was actually able to direct them. Where Rivera’s Diego stutters and breathes and emotes his way through every speech, Montoya offers a more casual, more stage-appropriate take. I have no doubt either actor truly felt the drama they were part of, but Rivera’s performance was so indulgently over-emotional and over-done, it became tedious.

It’s fairly clear that many of these sins could have been rectified had the director been someone who wasn’t in the show. A small example is that Rivera put himself in shadow more than once, first by standing in the middle of a gobo and then by lingering on the edges of a spotlight meant for him. (A habit I don’t understand, personally – doesn’t everyone have the voice of their high school theatre director yelling “Find your light!” constantly running through their heads?) This would have been an easy fix, had there been a second eye there to point out what Rivera himself can’t see. It wouldn’t have fixed every problem with the script, but perhaps it would have made the emotional journey at least an entertaining one.

Photo: Austin Rainbow Theatre

Back to You plays at the Ground Floor Theatre through January 20, 2024. For tickets and more information, visit ART online.