An Intricate Drama of Three People and Everyone Else

King Hang, Ashley Oviedo. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

​Next Act Theatre opens its season with a staggeringly complex three-person drama. Sanctuary City touches on the ongoing horrors involving immigration and those people on the margins and in the fringes of citizenship. Playwrights Martyna Majok’sscript gets into the soul-crushing situation so many people find themselves in. Majok’s script is impressively simple on the surface. It’s really just three people on stage and the intricacies of life that emerge between the three of them. it’s so much more than that, though. 


Ashley Oviedo and King Hang deftly move through the trials and dramas of a couple of people who are dealing with situations beyond their control. There are issues with citizenship for both of them. There are issues beyond that as well. Struggles with coming-of-age, basic safety and the meaning of “home” tumble around as the two of them try to navigate and negotiate the complexities of life in high school. There’s a breathtaking sense of progression which is pretty remarkable considering there’s almost no scenic elements very little in the way of complex lighting or anything like that. Oviedo and Hang are able to jump from moment to moment in and within the narrative in a way that doesn’t feel exaggerated. It doesn’t amplify the sense of repetition that’s written into the modern American life. It’s merely...there as the two of them move through a very complex series of emotional moments in front of an audience.


Things jump ahead as Ashley’s character move on to college. She’s managed to find citizenship. She’s also found an opportunity at an education in Boston. He’s not so lucky. (Still isn’t a citizen. Not really.) He’s still working at a restaurant. (Money under the table.) But he IS in a relationship with Henry: a man he loves. And there seems to be a certain kind of stability with that. Joe Lino is remarkably poised as his boyfriend--someone who would gladly marry him if he could. As it stands in the first decade after 2000, there wouldn’t be any real chance at citizenship with him. So she is willing to marry him. Because she cares about him. A Henry cares about him. Hang’s character is stuck somewhere in the middle of a friend from way back and a boyfriend from the present. It’s a very complex relationship between the three people. Gradually things become more and more apparent. Between him and his boyfriend and her.


The script is strikingly well-written. There’s a lot of nuance and complexity in the characterization of the people in question. It’s very impressive stuff. Thought provoking. Heart crushing. The drama shift swiftly by. The intensity of it lingers long after the final curtain. The complexity of the script is curhingly nuanced in its articulation. It’s difficult not to be extremely overwhelmed with frustration over the nature of things after seeing a play like this. It’s pretty overwhelming thinking about how different these people’s lives would have been if people in power in government decided to get it together and stop being a bunch of assholes. Life is dauntingly fragile on this planet. It doens’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter where you’re from. We’re all just trying to get along. 


Next Act’s production of Sanctuary City continues through October 5th. For ticket reservations, and more, visit Next Act online.