Theater Review: Dark Souls Congregate in UrbanTheater Company’s ‘Devil Land’

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionE-mail page to friendE-mail page to friendPDF versionPDF version
Average: 5 (2 votes)

CHICAGO – Insanity is often a shared phenomenon. One family member can drive another family member over the brink, an incident can break collective spirits and indulgence in religion can alter perspectives. All the bleak darkness of these mental incapacities are on display in the Midwest Premiere of the UrbanTheater Company stage production of “Devil Land.”

HollywoodChicago.com Comedy/Tragedy Rating: 4.0/5.0
Play Rating: 4.0/5.0

The play was written by playwright Desi Moreno-Penson, and was first presented in 2008 in New York City. It is set in a dank basement in the Bronx neighborhood, and explores the sins of a married Puerto Rican couple, co-dependent through each other’s psychosis. The three person show is spectacularly brought to truth by Christian Castro and Jasmin Cardenas as the couple, and Tricia Rodriguez as the victim of the couple’s dissolving reality. The cast explores the very bottom of lost, destructive souls, and interprets Moreno-Penson’s difficult journey with stark and hard-to-fathom honesty.

Jasmin Cardenas, Christian Castro, Tricia Rodriguez
Jasmin Cardenas (left), Christian Castro and Tricia Rodriguez in UrbanTheater Company’s ‘Devil Land’
Photo credit: UrbanTheaterChicago.org

Americo (Christian Castro) is a handyman for an apartment building in the Bronx. His wife Beatriz (Jasmin Cardenas) is a delicately balanced ex-mental patient who defies the road to recovery by kidnapping and chaining a 12 year old girl named Destiny (Tricia Rodriguez) in the basement boiler room. Americo goes along with it, to cruelly justify his wife’s actions, and at the same time becomes unnaturally attracted to the girl. The girl herself is obsessed with the Dr. Seuss character “The Grinch,” and calls on him to protect her. The situation becomes more desperate, as each character in the basement become prisoners of their own sinful madness.

Desi Moreno-Penson’s play is a harsh exploration of mental imbalance. All three of her characters are damaged in similar off-the-scale horror. It gets to the point in which they share hallucinations, as Americo and Beatriz begin to experience what the girl can see. The themes of sanity in association with religious mythology, in this case the unholy relationship that Beatriz has with her Catholic faith, is tested significantly in the challenging narrative. There are many moments that are worthy of turning away, not because of how roughly they are presented, but in the reminder of the inhumanity in lost lives.

Christian Castro
Christian Castro in ‘Devil Land’
Photo credit: UrbanTheaterChicago.org

The cast does a remarkable job of exposing the dark material. Christian Castro is a revelation as Americo, challenging all the hopeless stereotypes associated with the machismo of Hispanic men, while at the same time using them to define the character as he descends into his own Devil Land. Near the end of the play he becomes a persona of Destiny’s invention, and creates a chillingly perfect piece of performance art that is impossible to forget. Castro is fearless in the moment, and in that freedom clarifies the disgrace and downfall of Americo.

Jasmin Cardenas embodies the role of Beatriz to such a degree that her physical nature changes as the story develops. She becomes more downtrodden in spirit and body, and the actor fully participates in the transformation. Tricia Rodriguez, much older than her child character, is able to express the torture of being captive both in actuality and mentality. Her channeling of the various demons becomes scary-movie frightening, and her fellow stage travelers bounce appropriately off of her bizarre interpretive behavior.

As the pressure of our current and increasingly soulless society bears down on all of us, “Devil Land” is a reminder of how unchecked the resultant impulses can become, with anger and depression becoming mere symptoms of a larger fall from grace, with absolutely no hope of any redemption.

“Devil Land” is performed by the UrbanTheater Company from their theater at 2628 W. Division Avenue, Chicago – Thursday-Sunday through April 6th, 2014. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets. Featuring Jasmin Cardenas, Tricia Rodriguez, Christian Castro and Mike Cherry. Directed by Hank Hilbert.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2014 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

User Login

Free Giveaway Mailing

TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & THEATER REVIEWS

  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

Advertisement



HollywoodChicago.com on Twitter

archive

HollywoodChicago.com Top Ten Discussions
referendum
tracker