Mateo (Jon Victor Corpuz) and Diane (Lee Anne Payne) drive to San Diego. (Kevin Berne photo)

 

What starts as a journey of discovery for an adopted teenager turns out to reveal discoveries for both him and his adoptive mother.

In this world premiere presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, playwright Jordan Ramirez Puckett’s “The Driving Beat” features Jon Viktor Corpuz as Mateo, a brown, almost 15-year-old, and Lee Ann Payne as Diane, his white adoptive mother.

Livia Gomes Demarchi plays the other characters they encounter as they drive from their home in Ohio to the San Diego hospital where Mateo was born. He hopes to learn about his birth mother.

What Mateo learns about her changes his perception of his ethnicity and causes him and Diane to re-examine and strengthen their relationship.

It also causes him to encourage Diane to stop mourning for her deceased lesbian partner and to open herself to new possibilities.

As directed by TheatreWorks’ Jeffrey Lo, all three actors are outstanding. Payne and Corpuz are convincing as mother and son.

Demarchi embodies all of her miscellaneous characters such as the swaggering cop who stops the travelers’ car and questions whether Mateo is a U.S. citizen. As the waitress in the restaurant of the hotel where they’re staying one night, she inadvertently helps Diane to begin coming to terms with her repressed sexuality.

The play has its moments of humor. However, Mateo’s launching into rap and beatboxing while dancing could be a turnoff to some viewers. According to a Wikipedia entry, beatboxing is “a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.”

Rather than the main stage at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, this play is being presented in the smaller SecondStage with the audience seated on three sides.

Christopher Fitzer’s flexible scenic design uses the space well with only a few set pieces. However, the theater’s walls are filled with traffic signs, license plates and other items to emphasize the road trip.

Other design elements complement the production with lighting by Steven B. Mannshardt, costumes by Lisa Misako Claybaugh and sound by Cliff Caruthers.

First seen in TheatreWorks’ 2024 New Works Festival, this production will continue through Nov. 23 in the theater at 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Some performances will assist people who are hearing or vision impaired.

For tickets and more information, call (877) 662-8978 or visit www.theatreworks.org.