Jon Viktor Corpuz and Lee Ann Payne Photo by Kevin Berne

In her world premiere three-hander, playwright Jordan Ramirez Pucket explores a new dimension on this theme with great sensitivity and a highly entertaining outcome. On the surface, Diane is a middle-aged, white-bread elementary school teacher from Ohio. One summer, she takes her soon-to-be 15-year-old son Mateo on a driving trip to San Diego. However, the notion of this being a slice of traditional American life ends there. The fact that the action is punctuated with hip-hop song and dance diversions by Mateo in English and Spanish in which he shares inner thoughts should provide a clue.

Lee Ann Payne beautifully portrays Diana, the earnest and caring mother of an adopted boy. Her blend of tight and loose rules mixed with love have produced a warm relationship with Mateo. Diane lightheartedly refers to this trip as his quinceañero, which Mateo bristles at because quinceañeras, celebrating the 15th birthday, are for girls, and there is no male equivalent.

A bright, ebullient, and sensitive Mateo is portrayed by a smiling and visually expressive Jon Viktor Corpuz as a teen who loves Diane but is intimidated by much of what surrounds him. Mateo was born in San Diego and identified as Latino of unspecified origin. The purpose of the trip is the hope to find his roots.

Much of the play deals with the routines of travel, from license plate games to car breakdowns, and to the theme of parent-child relationship, which in this case is positive. Mateo even learns about car radio and dead zones in population wastelands. But by manipulating the static, he manages to make it the basis for the beat in hip hop he creates.

Several important social issues are plumbed. One of Mateo's goals is to be able to confront the taunts that his birth mother was a "crack whore." Raised in an Anglo environment, he has been subjected to bigotry by bullies. Despite Mateo having no connection to Latin culture, the issue of a stereotypical identity being forced upon him is revealed. This widespread bias has been suffered not only by Latinos but by Jews, Blacks, and others.

The anxiety from facing discrimination turns to fear when their car is stopped by Border Patrol in Texas, and mother and son are subjected to the humiliation and apprehension of trying to prove that Mateo is an American. Nothing could be more timely than this comment on the horrendous practices of ICE, which differ little from police state tactics.

One of the conundrums involving anonymous adoption is implied and ultimately addressed directly. Many adoptees are unable to simply accept their identity as free-standing individuals. They seek the anchor of knowing what group or what blood family they are part of. When the child desperately seeks this link by finding the birth mother, the adoptive mother, who has devoted her life to the sacrifice of raising the child, may sense rejection and emptiness.

A final dynamic is that Diane is a lesbian. It was her partner who yearned to have a child, but she died within two years of the adoption, so Diane has raised Mateo as a single parent. At one of the motel stops on the trip, a woman flirts with her and she has the opportunity to have physical contact with another person for the first time since her partner's death. But Diane still takes flowers to her lover's gravesite weekly and feels guilt about the thought of being with another. This clinging to the past and one more episode examine the subject of moving on and question whether it is time for Diane.

Incidents occur along the way, and the several locals involved in those events–waitress, motel clerk, AAA attendant, nurse, and the cruel Border Patrol agent–are all played by Livia Gomes Demarchi. Changes in costume, hair, and her affect provide convincing differences among the several characters she depicts.

The action plays on a full-thrust stage, which limits the set design, but Christopher Fitzer takes good advantage of the one wall and uses rolling props to provide a window into the various venues, where the viewer's imagination fills the stage. One of the Bay Area's primo directors, Jeffrey Lo, produces a well-paced, funny, and dramatic story with sympathetic characters. Though it is cram-packed with notable issues, A Driving Beat also stands as a fine and thoroughly enjoyable entertainment.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's A Driving Beat runs through November 23, 2025, at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View CA. For tickets and information, please visit theatreworks.org.