Playwright: Group-devised
At: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Navy Pier
Tickets: 312-595-5600;
ChicagoShakes.com; $35-$42
Runs through: Oct. 29
Amarillo is splendid physical theater. Its design elements are not beautiful when viewed separatelydozens of hanging bags of sand, industrial shelving, large plastic water bottlesbut they form a gorgeous and ever-changing whole over the course of this 60-minute piece, as three-dimensional items ( actors' bodies among them ), movement, lighting and videography fuse in constantly-imaginative ways. There's an astonishing musical element, too, supplied by singer/composer Jesus Cuevas, whose basso profundo vocals sound like throat-singing. I guess singing is physical theater, too!
I'm less certain about the purpose and message of Amarillo. It's a group-devised work by Teatro Linea de Sombra, a celebrated avantgarde Mexican company appearing in Chicago as part of Destinos, the umbrella name for the inaugural Chicago International Latino Theater Festival.
The title refers to Amarillo, Texasapparently a favored destination of many migrants who manage to cross the border. The play is about them collectively rather than about a particular individual or family. They are Mexicans mostly, but also from other Central American nations.
They risk everything at great financial, emotional and physical cost, and many die in the desert on the way, which is a particular focus of the work. Amarillo is less about a better life in El Norte and more about corruption, abuse, impoverishment and peril back home.
Reasonable, informed Mexicans and Yanquis already know all this, so to whom is the work addressed? The message of Amarillo seems to be "don't do it," a message best heard by the downtrodden and desperate who would dare the journey, the very people least likely to attend theater, even one that perpetually travels the Mexican landscape as does Teatro Linea de Sombra.
I'm only guessing, of course.
Most poignant are the sons, brothers and husbands who go north and disappear. ( Raul Mendoza plays them all and narrates to the audience. )
Some die on the journey, others succeed but eventually stop writing home or sending money. Earlier this year, the 16th Street Theatre in Berwyn presented Into the Beautiful North about this issue, adapted from the Luis Alberto Urrea novel. The story is particular and specific, involving an adolescent girl and her unlikely companions who illegally come to Chicago seeking her long-unheard-from father. Urrea creates a classic journey-quest, balancing the bittersweet with boisterous good humor in a vivid and lively stage adaptation. Amarillo is equally vivid, but it's an impressionistic political work with little joy rather than a story.
See Amarillo to honor the considerable artistry of our Mexican neighbors and coincidentally acknowledge Chicago's Latinx heritage.