Taking from her own experiences as an immigrant, Martyna Majok‘s play exposes two characters in the immigration experience: The winners and losers, and the profound feelings in between.
B (Spike Pulice) is in high school. Both him and his mom are undocumented. His classmate G (Vicky Yvonne) is also undocumented, but gains citizenship through her mom. Due to the body marks left by the physical abuse of her mom’s boyfriend, G has to miss several days of school. To escape the abuse, G stays at B’s apartment occasionally. Afraid of getting arrested and deported, B’s mom decides to go back to her home country, asking B if he wants to go with her, or stay behind by himself.
Set in the early 2000s, right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, B and G live in Newark, New Jersey, a city that has experienced a dramatic racial shift over the past 70 years. During that period, the White population shrank from 82% to 22%. The African American population grew from 17% to 48% during the same period. Even though there are not specific numbers for Latino residents during the 1950s, city census records showed that a small number of Latinos were living in Newark at the time. In contrast, the census from 2020 shows that the Latino or Hispanic population grew exponentially to around 36%, the majority of them from Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and Dominican Republic. These figures are significant to have a better picture of the city’s racial composition, although Majok does not disclose the race of the characters.
Navigating the anti-immigrant paranoia unleashed after 9/11 and the challenges of their personal lives, B and G grow closer together. They support each other in their darkest times. They even come up with a plan to get B his papers. What seems like an unbreakable bond, however, changes drastically once G gets her citizenship and decides to go to college in Boston on a scholarship. While B tries to stay in school, he also has to work to make ends meet. Time and distance do their thing, and feeling left behind, B explores other options, until he is forced to make a final decision.
Director Oánh Nguyễn keeps the incredible kinetics of the first part of the play, micro scenes where the actors keep moving around in a pretty much empty stage. The pacing builds up the tension, and one can imagine the intense work needed to remember all the scenes with the blocking and dialogue involved. It’s an extraordinary display of coordination and memory. During the second part, the pacing subsides and the play takes a more traditional approach. This creates a space that frames the resonance of the message. At this point, Henry (Jonathan Keyes) is introduced, creating new layers to the story, adding hope, stress, and pushing the main character over the edge.
The three actors shine in this play. Portraying such a delicate subject matter in a meaningful way, takes commitment and skills. The actors gravitate effortlessly towards the complex feelings of fear, fulfillment of dreams, and the cruelty of hard decisions. Pulice and Yvonne build up the emotional connection between the characters one scene at a time in the first part. This creates a more dramatic effect during the second part, making their fallout more painful. Keyes, in turn, is fantastic as the third wheel, a sophisticated character that might change B’s destiny. They’re a cohesive cast that make the characters credible and interesting.
With his extensive directorial experience, Nguyễn achieves a phenomenal production. The blocking and the work with his actors align fluidly with Majok’s rawness depiction of lives holding on to the American Dream. This staging is gripping and moving. It’s confrontational and conversational. You might fight it or come to terms with it, but the play represents the hopes, fears, and broken dreams of entire generations.
Talking about his great-grandfather’s migration from Ireland to America, Conan O’Brien said that sometimes it takes an entire lifetime just to get things started for the next generation to succeed. Sanctuary City shows that first generation, struggling to achieve that success. Some people make it, some people don’t. The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall, as the song goes. Will B achieve his dream, or will he get lost in the shadows?
Sanctuary City
Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center on the Fyda-Mar Stage
5522 E. La Palma Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92807
May 9 through May 31, 2026
Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 3PM & 8PM, and Sundays at 3PM
Tickets: chancetheater.com
Written by Martyna Majok
Directed by Oánh Nguyễn
Cast: Spike Pulice as B, Vicky Yvonne as G, and Jonathan Keyes as Henry.
Creative team: Scenic & Costume Designers – Mio Okada-Nunez and Fred Kinney, Lighting & Sound Designer – Andrew Hungerford, Stage Manager – Jordyn Nieblas-Galvan, Dramaturg – Jasmine Sunoo-Flanders, Assistant Director, Intimacy Coordinator, & Casting Director – Shinshin Yuder Tsai.
