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B and G are two high school kids living in early 2000’s, post 9/11 Newark, New Jersey in Martyna Majok’s new play “Sanctuary City” which opened this week at Pasadena Playhouse. It’s a fascinating and gut-wrenching look into the lives of young people who are undocumented, brought to America as children and forced to navigate a world that is all they know and yet always out of reach.
The play opens with G, a 17 year-old high school girl banging on the window of her best friend, B, a 17 year-old boy living with his single, undocumented mother. Through a series of staccato scenes that go back and forth in time, we learn that G’s stepfather is abusive and she often sleeps over at B’s while he makes excuses for her at school and brings her homework. Both of them are stuck in this no-man’s land where to ask for help brings risk of being deported. B longs to go to college but knows he can’t qualify for financial aid. Both of them have little hope and yet they hustle and do what they can by working and going to school and just surviving one day at a time.
B’s mother has decided to return to her country of origin, leaving B to figure out how to finish his senior year on his own. G moves in with him and they both continue to do what they can to eat, pay rent and try to finish school. When G receives the unexpected news that she and her mother have been granted citizenship, everything in their relationship shifts as the world suddenly opens up for G while leaving B in the shadows. They remain committed to their ride or die friendship but will it be able to survive such a dramatic change in their status and possibilities?
The first half of the play takes place on a spare stage with a metal, old school jungle gym that functions as B’s apartment and fire escape where the two characters bob, weave and climb to suggest different spaces. It’s platonic for the most part but one senses a deep bond that could turn into more, especially during the delightful prom scenes. Ana Nicolle Chavez is a bold and sassy G, but also brings a softness and gentle vulnerability that has you rooting for her and all that she could do and be. The charismatic Miles Fowler is riveting as B, full of hope and longing that has you on the edge of your seat as he desperately tries to navigate his increasingly complicated situation. Kanoa Goo is Henry – a third, very significant character who is introduced in the second act. Three years have gone by and we now re-discover the characters in a realistic set of B’s apartment. As the scene unfolds, painful truths are revealed and excruciating choices will be made. Goo is as handsome as he is charming and infuses Henry with an earnest integrity and some great comedic timing.
The play is very effective in bringing us into these people’s lives – lives that perhaps most of us haven’t truly considered – the daily fears and sacrifices, the feelings of displacement – feeling unwanted in the only home you’ve ever known with no avenues to move your life forward. Majok’s play brings these realities into sharp focus and the result is a profound realization of how policy plays out in real life for real people.
Sanctuary City plays through October 9 at Pasadena Playhouse. Tickets starting at $30 and are available at pasadenaplayhouse.org by phone at 626-356-7529, and at the box office at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101.
