The setting of a “post-apocalyptic dystopia” has become such a staple of modern literature – and the resultant cinematic adaptations – that your public library could reserve a room for books that fit the form.

When American playwright Jose Rivera wrote “Marisol” in 1992, it may have looked like it could be shelved in that room. But the author leaned upon another literary tradition, that of Latin American magical realism, in his tale of how a civil war in heaven was pulling guardian angels from their duties and plunging New York City into unrecognizable chaos.

While you may feel as if there’s enough chaos in your life right now, don’t let that keep you from attending a performance of “Marisol,” which is opening Penumbra Theatre’s season in a co-production with Teatro del Pueblo. Rivera’s writing is well worth experiencing, and what’s on stage at Penumbra is an imaginative and deeply absorbing staging, which, despite its darkness, offers a sense of hope and faith in humanity.

Directed by Sarah Bellamy, the production can bear the tone of a nightmare while also inspiring laughter with what comes out of the mouths of its wildly offbeat characters. Played out on Maruti Evans’ fascinating set full of steel mesh and funhouse mirrors and enhanced by the haunting projections of Miko Simmons, it’s a triumph of design that’s at its most compelling when it finds the realism embedded in this quite surreal tale.

James Craven plays a homeless man in Penumbra Theatre and Teatro del Pueblo’s production of “Marisol,” Jose Rivera’s apocalyptic drama about a woman trying to survive in a seemingly collapsing world. It plays at Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul through Nov. 2, 2025. (Caroline Yang / Penumbra Theatre)

The title character (played by Kay Mercedes) works for a Manhattan textbook publisher, but lives in a rough part of the Bronx, and it’s not long before we witness her enduring violent threats on a subway train and at her apartment door. In both cases, the danger is swept away by her leather-jacketed guardian angel (a visibly world-weary Vinecia Coleman), who then alerts Marisol that she’s relinquishing her duties of protecting her in order to help lead an insurrection in heaven against a senile and failing god.

Everything goes sideways from there. Marisol is forced to deal with the romantic obsession of a friend’s mentally ill brother, that friend’s disappearance, and being plunged into a landscape that’s less a dystopia than an apocalypse in process. The moon has disappeared, the sun’s in the wrong part of the sky, food is inedible, and men are bearing children. Sad to say, Rivera’s prophecy of violently aggressive “patriots” setting fire to homeless people seems to have come true.

If all that sounds daunting, be assured that Penumbra and Teatro del Pueblo’s production and, especially, Rivera’s arresting voice make this a very rewarding experience. It’s a tricky story to pull off convincingly, but the six-person cast does so, making each character memorable.

Director Bellamy wisely chooses to emphasize naturalism in the portrayals, making it all the more discomfiting when reality goes off the rails. James Craven is a standout as a wheelchair-bound homeless man, while Paul LaNave is compelling as a couple of daunting villains and the obsessive brother who undergoes a startling transformation.

If Mercedes’ Marisol were less melodramatic and more in tune with the naturalism of her castmates, this could be a truly masterful staging. But, as it is, this dystopian odyssey is well worth taking.

Penumbra Theatre and Teatro del Pueblo’s ‘Marisol’

When: Through Nov. 2

Where: Penumbra Theatre, 270 N. Kent St., St. Paul

Tickets: $45-$20, available at 651-224-3180 or penumbratheatre.org

Capsule: While dark and discomfiting, it’s also a deeply compelling experience.

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When you think of veteran leaders on a hockey team, a guy in his 30s with a beard and the battle scars of 600-plus nights in the NHL trenches comes to mind. The Minnesota Wild have more than one of those, personified by the likes of Zach Bogosian and Ryan Hartman, who fit the part, right down to the beard.

Minnesota Wild’s Brock Faber (7) looks to pass during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the St. Louis Blues Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

On a Wild roster featuring an abundance of youth in the likes of David Jiricek (60 regular season NHL games on his resume entering this season), Liam Ohgren (29), Daemon Hunt (13), Zeev Buium (0), Danila Yurov (0) and Hunter Haight (0), the Minnesota coaches are looking to a younger leadership group, much closer in age to the newbies, to offer friendship in the room and advice on the ice.

Among those coach John Hynes is leaning on to lead the way for his six-pack of newcomers are top-line forwards Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi, each of them 24, and defenseman Brock Faber, who turned 23 this year but is rapidly approaching 200 NHL games in the regular season and playoffs.

“Brock’s a young guy, but he has had great experience and is a little bit mature beyond his years,” Hynes said, following the season-opening blowout win in St. Louis. “I’d say the same thing for Boldy and Rossi. They’re two young guys, but they’ve played important roles for our team.”

While the experience of longtime NHL fixtures like captain Jared Spurgeon and two-time Stanley Cup winner Vladimir Tarasenko cannot be discounted, Hynes’ trio of younger leaders is expected to be vital this season as injures and other moves force more players from the Iowa Wild into the NHL lineup.

“All three of them, even though they’re under 24, because they have strong experience … their focus level, their maturity as people and I think in life helps,” Hynes said. “Because they’re so close in age with some of those young guys as well.”

For Boldy, it was just four years ago that he was a NHL rookie. So he still has fresh memories of those exciting and stressful first games in the spotlight of the world’s top hockey league and can relate to what teammates like Ohgren, who sits next to Boldy in the team locker room, are facing.

Just a few years ago, players like Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno – then in their 20s – were in the “young mentor” role for newbies like Boldy.

“I feel like we’re still in that position, but obviously not very far removed,” said Boldy, who had a goal and two assists in the 5-0 win over the Blues on Thursday. “A lot of the same guys from my first year are still here, and I think how good they were when I came in, making me feel comfortable and confident. I think that’s something we tried to help everyone else with.”

Haight was one of the last cuts from training camp, but his trip to Iowa was a down-and-back, as the Wild recalled him almost immediately when it became clear that veteran Nico Sturm would not be healthy enough to start the season centering the fourth line.

In his NHL debut on Thursday, with a number of family members and friends from around London, Ontario, in attendance, Haight logged 10 minutes of ice time, recorded two hits, and won five of the eight faceoffs he took.

Even when they were sending him down to the minors initially, the Wild leadership’s message to Haight was that he was on the cusp of being a contributor at the NHL level.

“It was that I was right there, and just to keep working and keep doing what I’m doing,” Haight recalled. “Because it’s working and it’s catching eyes, and I’ve just got to go up from there.”

After leaving Boston College for the pro ranks, Boldy logged two dozen games in Iowa before getting called up to “the show.” Now in the role of mentor instead of mentee, he knows the fragile confidence level some players have, and what veterans in his position can best provide.

“It’s stressful. There’s a lot going on. You can’t get too low or too high, I think that’s the biggest thing,” Boldy said. “Everything comes. Points come, goals come. You’re going to get put on the ice a lot more when you’re doing the right things, and that’s usually when you’re not thinking about the other stuff.”

With youth on one end, seasoned veterans on the other end, and a young leadership group in, the Wild head into their home opener, and the 80 games beyond, believing that they have a mix that will mean another playoff trip, and more, in 2025-26.

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Love winter? The St. Paul Winter Carnival is still seeking candidates for Aurora, Queen of the Snows for 2026.

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The application process is currently underway ahead of the upcoming carnival, which will be held Jan. 22-Feb. 1.

To apply for this volunteer role, you don’t need to live in St. Paul, but you do have to be at least 21 years old by Jan. 15, 2026.

Candidates must submit an online application, including a resume, by 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 1.

The Winter Carnival’s cast of characters, including King Boreas, spend the 10 days of the festival making appearances and playacting the battle between winter and spring; they continue to make appearances throughout their yearlong reign.

Apply and get more info on the queen — and other roles in the Winter Carnival legend — at wintercarnival.com/p/traditions–the-legend/become-a-legend-character.

By CLAIRE RUSH, Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A U.S. citizen in Portland, Oregon, was detained by plainclothes officers and held at the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building for hours before being released, according to his attorney.

Francisco Miranda was outside his place of work early on Oct. 2 when multiple agents wearing masks, who did not identify themselves, approached him and told him he was “on an overstay,” his attorney Michael Fuller said. In a video that Miranda took of his detention, he can be heard saying, “What do you mean, overstay? I don’t know what that is.”

He told the officers that he was born in California. After objecting to being taken into custody and saying he hadn’t done anything wrong, an officer can be heard on the video saying, “We’re gonna put you in cuffs or you’re gonna get the dog.”

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Miranda was then struck from behind, handcuffed and put into an unmarked vehicle that took him to Portland’s ICE building, Fuller said. He was held there for several hours before being driven back to his place of work.

ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

Willamette Week, a local news outlet, first reported the incident.

Fuller said it was the first detention of a U.S. citizen on the pretext of being in the country illegally that he was aware of in Oregon. Such detentions have occurred elsewhere in the country, including in Alabama, Florida and Southern California.

Aggressive immigration enforcement has been central to President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum said she was “infuriated” by what happened to her constituent. “Masked federal agents aren’t welcome in our state and they can’t keep kidnapping Americans,” she said in a statement.

Fuller, who said he has a copy of Miranda’s California birth certificate, sent a tort claim notice to the Department of Homeland Security and a letter to its leader Kristi Noem, requesting the documents and information used to justify the detention. DHS oversees ICE.

“I hope that ICE and the senior officials will just provide us the documentation,” Fuller said. “If it truly was an honest mistake that couldn’t have been avoided, then we won’t go to court. Right now, we’ve just been given no answers. And so that’s all we’re asking for at this point, it’s just answers.”