Diana Guizado (Photo courtesy of Glass Half Full Theatre Company)
Reviewed by Julia Lloyd-George
Glass Half Full Theatre Company at the Los Angeles Theater Center
Through November 8
Among 19 shows playing in the Latino Theatre Company’s Encuentro Festival (which celebrates Latino culture from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico), Austin-based Glass Half Full Theatre Company’s timely Yamel Cucuy stands out for its relevance in our current election cycle.
It’s set during the first Trump administration, when ICE raids and detainment centers for migrants were a grim reality. Weaving elements of Mexican folklore and modern horror tropes with the very real horror of immigration agents hunting down migrants as if they were dangerous animals, the play mostly succeeds in striking a tricky balance between a variety of narrative strands and tonal shifts. It treads lightly on the subject of politics, but nevertheless emphasizes what’s at stake as we choose the next leader of our country.
The story — which can be a little confusing to follow —is centered on one victim of Trump’s draconian immigration policies, a 13-year-old girl named Yamel, played by the magnetic Diana Guizado. Recently transplanted to the U.S. after an arduous journey over the border, Yamel is adapting to life at the home of her aunt, Tia Zaira (Minerva Villa), with her older brother, Xavier (Gustavo Martinez), at her side. Although her aunt has warned them both about the ICE raids and instructed them to surrender if necessary, Yamel — home alone when the immigration agents’ loud, aggressive knocks come at her door — decides to hide in the fridge. It’s a decision that appears to end her life, though there is some ambiguity about whether her death is instead due to ICE agents at a detainment center.
It’s a tragic plot point glossed over quite casually, as the audience gradually learns that Yamel has crossed over into the Mexican spirit world, where she’s surrounded by creatures like the wise-cracking, wolfish Chupacabron (Gustavo Martinez) and an intimidating owl known as La Lechuza (Veronica Pomata). Chupacabron guides Yamel through the stages of the afterlife, even though she is too upset by her premature death and her surviving family’s struggles to accept any sort of rest. The various realms of the underworld and challenges Yamel has to undertake tend to blur together and feel repetitive, with no real stakes or lessons learned, since Yamel is already dead and there doesn’t seem to be any real possibility for her to return to the world of the living or have an impact on it.
Nevertheless, two production elements — the artistry of the video graphics and the puppetry — are remarkable. Connor Hopkins, Indigo Rael, and Caroline Reck, who also directed the play, all do a beautiful job, and the quality of their craftsmanship is one of the best reasons to see the show. And, despite an anticlimactic ending that leaves some important questions about Yamel’s family unanswered, Yamel Cucuy is a testament to the strength of Mexican storytelling tradition and the immigrant spirit in the face of relentless dehumanization. Remember, it says, and resist.
Los Angeles Theater Center, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013; Sat., Nov 2, 5 pm; Sun., Nov. 3, 4 pm; Thurs., Nov 7, 8 pm; Fri., Nov 8, 8 pm. https://www.latinotheaterco.org/ Running time: 79 minutes with no intermission.
