They Let Me In: A Sanctuary City Review

Grant Kennedy Lewis and Sara Gutierrez in Sanctuary City at THEATERWORKS HARTFORD.

The borrowed lives of American immigrants are honored in the visually stunning and remarkably layered story that is Sanctuary City. TheaterWorks Hartford, in partnership with Long Wharf Theatre, presents Sanctuary City, written by Martyna Majok and directed by Jacob G. Padrón and Pedro Bermúdez.

Set in Newark, New Jersey on the heels of 9/11, this production plays on the non-linear nature of memory, exposing excerpts of two intertwined lives in a fragmented back-and-forth as they recall defining moments of their connection. As Dreamers with an acute awareness of the disconnect that exists between them and the country they call home, B and G are tasked with the impossible—planning for their respective futures in a place that is provisional at best, without the security of belonging.

B, played by Grant Kennedy Lewis, is concerned about his place in the only home he’s ever really known. He feels helpless preparing for his life to change as his mother’s immigration fears become his own. G (Sara Gutierrez) has a different set of troubles stemming from the same root—she doesn’t legally belong, either. B and G find haven in each other, becoming saviors for each other time and again. They become each other’s spring of hope. But how actively can a person live a borrowed life? B and G find themselves facing troubles without solutions until G’s life begins to shift, opening doors that B could only ever dream of. For every foundation that has ever fallen out from under us, for every iteration of home that has changed before we realized in full what we were losing— we too have been B and G.

Henry, played by Mishka Yarovoy, is both ally and interloper to B and G respectively—depicting the understanding and well-intended but still disconnected nature of those on the inside of belonging.

Gutierrez is beckoning—a compelling force delivering a picture of strength and stoicism seeking a soft place to land, to crumble. She convincingly portrays the brand of tough, of laughing to keep from crying, of bending to keep from breaking that is the core of immigrant women (and men) with families they become scaffolding for—at the cost of their own becoming.

Lewis is delicate, porcelain in his characterization of a young man searching for a safe space to become all that he needs and wants to be. He is the quintessence of coming-of-age, of walking miles in a pair of shoes, worn and on the verge of falling apart, begging for grace as he tries to get it right.

The chemistry between Lewis and Gutierrez delivers the intimacy of friendship, of familiarity, of an understanding that exists beyond the surface-level questions of identity. Their connection is as palpable as their fears. Chief among those fears is that of losing the home they find in each other.

The projection and video design of Pedro Bermúdez brilliantly elevates the fleeting nature of time and creates a serrated fragmenting of moments that depict the spotty pictures of time passing that memories are. Sporadic flickers of light and sound, courtesy of the lighting and sound design of Paul Whitaker and Fabian Obispo, highlight the montage element of the production, masterfully elapsing years of key moments. Those elements, adjacent to subtly choreographed shifts in the actors’ positions on stage, culminate in what feels like a dance between friends to a soundtrack of their conversations. Equally meaningful is Sarita Fellows’ costume design denoting key distinctions of each character—shifting to signify their changes.

The synchronicity between B and G’s back-and-forth movements, the record-scratching sounds, paired with the repetition of conversational excerpts that are important enough to not forget, and the pockets of joy that momentarily eclipses their collective heartbreak, result in a poetic visualization. Sanctuary City masterfully visualizes the anatomy of a surreptitious life, of borrowed time, and the adjacent themes of stunted growth, grief, invisibility, and hope.

Sanctuary City runs through April 25th at Theaterworks Hartford. For tickets, visit twhartford.org.