FORBIDDEN PASSION: Father Monroe (Raul Mendez) visits Marcela (Hannia Guillen) and her struggling Cuban-American family, but his pastoral kindness turns into much more, in McCarter Theatre’s production of Nilo Cruz’s world premiere of “Bathing in Moonlight” at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre through October 9. (Photo by T. Charles Erickson)

Father Monroe (Raul Mendez) welcomes the audience into his church in the opening moments of Bathing in Moonlight, Nilo Cruz’s new play, currently at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre. The smiling priest in his 40s, attractive, warm, addressing his “parishioners” individually as friends, makes his way down the aisle to the stage, where Edward Pierce’s striking set and lighting — with a red cross in the middle of a large stained glass window and latticed wooden screen backdrop — emphasizes the church setting.

Father Monroe’s brief sermon, which is a prologue to the play, takes the form of an allegory about inclusiveness, about acceptance of others, even in defiance of Roman Catholic doctrine. “God wants us to remove barriers and walls,” Father Monroe tells us. “In his house we won’t find a fence.”

During the next 90 minutes, the priest struggles against the barriers of his religion, as his love for his parishioner Marcela (Hannia Guillen) clashes with his vows as a priest.

Set in Miami in 2015, the eight scenes of the play, divide evenly between the church and the house of Marcela, a single Cuban-American mother in her 30s who lives with her ailing mother Martina (Priscilla Lopez) and teen-aged daughter Trini (Katty Velasquez). Music (sound design by Darron L West) ranging from high liturgical to hot Miami-Cuban rhythms; set and lighting contrasting the somber stateliness and shadowiness of the church with the bright colors of the family home; Mr. Cruz’s juxtaposition of the lyrical/poetic with the more austere, restrained language of the church; and this impressive ensemble of six actors under the sensitive, sure-handed direction of Emily Mann, all help to bring these two irreconcilable worlds to life on the Berlind stage.

The production elements come together seamlessly and powerfully. The appealing performers engage the audience in this story more and more as the romance between Father Monroe and Marcela develops. The action flows smoothly back and forth between the church and the house, and never drags.

As the play focuses on the conflict of sacred and secular loves, Father Monroe faces the crisis of living in both worlds simultaneously. He describes his turbulent thoughts to his sympathetic but stern bishop (Michael Rudko) late in the play: “What am I to do, Father? I have dreams, and yet it feels I shouldn’t dream or accept what I dream of. Three things contend within me: one, my vow of celibacy; two, my longing for Marcela; and three, my commitment to this parish.”

As he helps Marcela pay the mortgage, Father Monroe is welcomed more and more as a member of her family. At the same time Marcela, who plays the piano beautifully, but whose family has had to sell its piano, has spent more and more time practicing the piano at church. Music becomes much more than just background to the growing romance between Monroe and Marcela. As they spend more time together flirtation quickly turns to romance and passionate love.

Though highlighting the conflict between love of the church and love for a woman, Bathing in Moonlight is also a play about home, finding a home, and this production represents a sort of homecoming for the 56-year-old Mr. Cruz. Two early plays, A Park in Our House (1994) and Two Sisters and a Piano (1999), were staged at McCarter by the Cuban-born playwright before he gained international acclaim with his Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna in the Tropics, which opened in the Berlind Theatre in 2003. The story of Cuban-Americans in a Tampa cigar factory in the 1930s, Anna in the Tropics, with its echoes of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, went on to a successful Broadway run, a Tony nomination for best play, and many subsequent productions throughout the country. Mr. Cruz has not achieved a comparable success in the ensuing 13 years.

Many of his trademark characteristics appear powerfully in Bathing in Moonlight: rich poetic language; a vivid array of characters, Cuban-Americans struggling to be free from poverty, societal restrictions or other barriers to happiness; an element of magical realism, seen here in Martina’s fantasy encounters with her deceased husband; and a lyrical, romantic, musical quality along with a serious moral conflict.

Bathing in Moonlight, however, though providing an engaging, entertaining evening, does lack the complexity and depth of Anna — missing out on the levels of significance in Anna in the Tropics’ connections to Tolstoy’s classic novel. Also, as powerfully conceived and skillfully portrayed as the two main characters (Father Monroe and Marcela) are, the anguish of a priest struggling with the conflict between divine and earthly love is hardly a new concept.

Other issues in the play, involving the return home of Marcela’s brother Taviano (Frankie J. Alvarez) for the first time in two years, the fantasy world created by Martina in her imagined rendezvous with her late husband (also played by Mr. Alvarez), and Trini’s aspirations to study marine biology and create her own light, all offer promising, interesting ideas — material perhaps for future Cruz plays, but they are not extensively developed here.

“There was always an air of tenderness and warmth,” Martina reminisces, as her mind returns to the long ago days of her youth in Havana. “The giggles of men and women would travel from windows and balconies, past the blinds, through the iron grill and down to the sidewalks, overflowing the streets with the pleasure of the senses ….”

Mr. Cruz’s play captures, in the words, actions and spirit of his characters the aura of old Havana that Martina remembers. Amidst this pleasure of the senses — the rich visual, auditory, poetic imagery of Nilo Cruz and this lavish McCarter production — no wonder the austerities of the church seem so easily overpowered when Father Monroe seeks to remove fences and walls in pursuit of romance.

“Bathing in Moonlight” will play at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre, 91 University Place in Princeton through October 9. Call 609-258-2787 or visit www.mccarter.org for tickets and further information.