“The Break-Up! A Latina Queer Torch Song”: Blending Belly Laughs and Tears—at The Rhino
Tina D'Elia. Photo by Colin Hussey
Tina D’Elia Tangoes with Heartbreak, SF Style
by Yael Bright
In a daring one-woman show, Tina D’Elia fights the uphill battle of a Bay Area lesbians who break up with their lovers. D’Elia plays a host of colorful queer roles all facing loneliness head-on together.
D’Elia’s dreamy dramedy “The Break-Up! A Latina Queer Torch Song” features trans-cendent characters attempting to recover from the emptiness of lost love.
Her queer folk deal with the grief of their break-ups in a metaphysical middle-land in the heart of San Francisco. Though deeply concerned with longing, the show is embellished with whimsicality, featuring Simpson-yellow walls, evil talking cats, and Michelin-star hedgehog chefs. While still leaning into the pain, D’Elia offers an imaginative, comic approach to life-changing losses.
Starring introspective femme Trina Marina in a purple sweatsuit, the recently broken-up-with lead joins a therapy group for heartbroken queer people. The members converse over snacks made by hardworking hedgehogs, adding a pleasing dollop of fantasy. All of them are played brilliantly by Tina D’Elia.
Tina D'Elia
A Black queer elder called Justice is the ringleader and facilitator of this queer ex-lovers’ soiree. Justice experimented with his sexuality and hurt his ex-wife in the process.
Fabulous, yet lost vagabond Popo is searching for his soul. He testifies about a steamy Spanish love affair gone awry many years ago.
Soon (to-be-happy), a queer woman with a squeaky voice and zany disposition, is recovering from losing her childhood friend and lover. D’Elia illuminates each persona with a delicate understanding of each character she crafts.
Trina relives the hilly highs and lows with her butch ex, Helen Rodriguez, aka ‘HR.’ We follow their dates, debates, and delights. Their identities unfold in revealing conversations, during walks in Dolores Park, motorcycle rides over the Bay Bridge, and Rom-com marathons in HR’s Oakland apartment.
D’Elia’s great success emerges in her execution, using few props. On a bare stage in Rhino’s storefront theater, D’Elia creates a Hollywood world full of fascinating, otherworldly characters with the help of clever lighting design and a stellar soundtrack.
Tina D'Elia
D’Elia shapeshifts, using movement, mimicry, and mime. She dramatizes discotheque dance numbers and young romance in a sunlit park. On the park swings, unrequited love blossoms through brilliant stage design and clear understanding of illusion. You can almost hear the swings squeaking.
Tina D’Elia’s piercing gaze and body language convey the vulnerabilities of four idiosyncratic, queer characters of varying races, ages, and genders. Each of her characters is bold, striking us as individually true, authentic, and exciting.
In Popo’s case, his RuPaul-esque flair gives his character a raw authenticity. Soon (to-be-happy) bottles up her emotions and flies off on bubbly tangents. Justice is laid-back and poised.
Each lovelorn character elaborates upon their feelings. Trina and HR reenact 80s Rom coms from a queer point of view. Modern English songs and soulful Spanish ballads flow from the play’s soundtrack.
What better place to perform such an evocative and honest show than the historic Theatre Rhinoceros, America’s longest running LGBTQ+ playhouse in San Francisco’s iconic gayborhood?
Whether you are recovering from a breakup, longing for a shoulder to cry on, or eager to see hedgehogs baking bread sticks, “The Break-Up!” offers the perfect night out in the Castro.
“The Break-Up! A Latina Queer Torch Song” –written and performed by Tina D’Elia, directed by Mary Guzmán, developed by David Ford, costumes designed by Christine U’Ren, lighting by Colin Johnson, stage manager Raye Goh, produced by John Fisher & Crystal Liu, by Theatre Rhinoceros, San Francisco.
Info: therhino.org - to November 23, 2025.
Cast: Tina D’Elia (in many roles).