THEATER - "Devil Land"

There are many good things about Devil Land. Unfortunately, there are also a lot bad things. Given that the play (which deals with the abduction of a young girl by a religious fanatic and her abiding husband) presents the sometimes violent story in the guise of a Seussian narrative interrupted by some disturbing and haunting scenes, let’s go through the first few highlights and problems in rhyme. If I’ve learned anything from Devil Land, it’s that an innovative presentation is like a spoonful of sugar: it helps the medicine go down.

The set is quite impressive; it’s a boiler-room from Hell,

The use of tricky lighting just accentuates the spell.

Dark shadows become thicker and the lights let in the grime,

It makes the presentation like some Freddy Kruger crime.

Down here in hot, hot Devil Land (where the bad kids go to burn)

Does crazy Beatriz (her kidnapper) simply wish to help her learn?

Can it really be a crime, goes the plot, to sin for good old God?

The bible warns us, after all, to save the child, spare not the rod.

Of course, these simple rhymes and tricks can only say so much

And when indulged or used too much, they come off like a crutch.

By the second act—I swear it’s true—the narrative works no more,

And the vicious, vicious dénouement is too mystical at its core.

Ahem. That is to say, Devil Land loses itself in the second act trying to be overly creative despite still having plenty of realism left. The pivotal revelation may be obvious to the audience, but it forces enough of a character shift to render the need for metaphorical lunacy unnecessary. Furthermore, Beatriz (played perfectly by the playwright, Desi Moreno-Penson) is already crazy enough in the physical: the play’s own regression gives her too much humanity back. It also changes Destiny (the on-again-off-again Paula Ehrenberg) from being an innocent girl to a world-weary spiritualist, and suggests too strongly that her imaginary friend, the Grinch, is more than a figment of her imagination.

Whereas we could relate to her precarious situation in the first act—chained to a bed, stuck between a burgeoning pedophile (Miguel Sierra) and his crazy wife—she seems overconfident and snide in the second, as if she were never in any danger at all. The voice of the narrator (DJ Thacker) reassures us that it’s all just a harmless story, and that it will all work itself out in the end, as good stories do, and even as it gives Devil Land a unique spin, it also takes away some of the surprise.

Thanks to the set, lighting, direction, and generally convincing performances, Devil Land manages to exude a grim mood and an unsettling realm of possibilities. It’s just a shame that it chooses to eschew those gifts for an easy copout in the meaningless world of magical (un)realism.