No question about it: Immigration is a hot topic today. Stemming the flow of undocumented immigrants from Mexico has become a cause célèbre in Washington, D.C., the media, and states that border the Rio Grande. The ensuing anger over illegal crossings, coupled with fears of terrorism, has even spawned The Minutemen, a militant volunteer group whose members are providing uninvited and potentially violent support for border patrol agents. Writer-actor Carlos Lacamara's realistic script, tinged with gallows humor, pulls together these explosive elements to examine the situation and highlight several factors--the deadly risks posed by the terrain, the fears of family members left behind--that often get short shrift.
This production features an accomplished veteran cast. Lacamara portrays Roberto, the worried, desperate father of Pilar (Cheryl Umana) frantically searching the desert for his daughter, due in two weeks earlier. Patrick Rowe is Gary, a blue-collar worker from Kentucky who lost his job when his plant moved to Mexico. A Minutemen-styled volunteer, Gary comes across Roberto while Gary waits for agents to collect the remains of a woman who died during her crossing. The action, swiftly paced by director Bert Rosario, jumps back and forth between Roberto and Gary's highly charged encounter and Pilar's perilous journey north with a fellow immigrant (David Michie), who is a married horse handler risking everything to find work, and the smarmy, drug-addicted coyote (Mark Adair-Rios) leading them across the desert. Umana, Michie, and Adair-Rios are first-rate, as are Lacamara and Rowe, whose characters slowly discover they have much in common as worried, financially struggling fathers of headstrong children. The only misstep in this otherwise hard-hitting production is a rather weak transition to Gary and Roberto's climactic and horrible final discovery.
Presented by City Stage at the Hayworth, 2509 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Jun. 10-Jul. 16. (800) 838-3006.