Martyna Majok is among America’s most talked-about playwrights right now, having won the Pulitzer Prize for “Cost of Living” and an off-Broadway Obie Award for “Sanctuary City.” She has a reputation for creating very believable characters and conflicts, as well as breaking hearts and stereotypes.
You can get a strong sense of her skills by catching “Sanctuary City” at South Minneapolis’ little Open Eye Theatre, where it’s being presented by the reliably thought-provoking Frank Theatre.
Majok’s themes of working-class struggles and outsiders seeking connection are likely shaped by being brought to the U.S. from Poland in childhood. She has experience as what’s come to be called a “Dreamer,” one who arrived here as a child and would like to stay, but has uncertain citizenship status.
Also “Dreamers” are the two principal characters in “Sanctuary City,” a drama that may have a politically charged title, but is actually about two teenagers finding sanctuary in one another. In identifying our female and male protagonists in the program only as G and B, Majok has freed theater companies to cast the play with actors of the ethnicities of their choice.
Frank Theatre’s founder and leader since its 1989 inception, director Wendy Knox has chosen actors of Asian descent. But it’s clear that cultural heritage isn’t a big part of the lives of G and B, unless you view the lives of typical American teenagers as a culture. They’re caught up in keeping up with homework, holding down part-time jobs and thinking about going to prom.
But the degree of difficulty grows considerably when you consider that G has an abusive stepfather who her mother is afraid to leave or report for fear of deportation, and that B’s mother wants to go back to their native country, but he wants to stay. Could the solution be that these two friends since third grade, never romantically involved, should marry?
Although it’s presented in an intermission-less 100 minutes, “Sanctuary City” is very clearly divided into two acts. Perhaps mirroring the attention spans of this 17-year-old pair, the first half is presented in brief and often repetitious fragments that might try the patience of some audience members, but serve to underline the ways in which they habitually support one another. (And the prom scenes are wonderfully sweet and funny.)
The play’s second half bears a contrasting tone. Three-and-a-half years later, their friendship has clearly undergone some damage, as have the characters. Where once was unconditional support is now something of a power struggle. This is where Majok’s writing hits hardest, the climactic conflict leaving audiences with a lot to discuss about the choices they’re forced to make.
Actors Stephanie Anne Bertumen and Clay Man Soo will almost certainly make you care a lot about them. Bertumen brings convincing adolescent effervescence to G before a history of trauma takes its toll. And Soo skillfully fuses warmth and cool as B before things boil over in Act Two with the addition of a third element, Keivin Vang’s more calculating Henry.
“Sanctuary City” is a play that packs a punch but invites your compassion for those currently being stuffed into the vehicles of immigration agents. Some might just be typical American kids.
Frank Theatre’s ‘Sanctuary City’
When: Through Feb. 23
Where: Open Eye Theatre, 506 24th St. E., Mpls.
Tickets: $30-$25, available at 612-724-3760 or franktheatre.org
Capsule: A very well-written and acted drama about the damage done to Dreamers.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.
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