Image via YouTube / Untold Collectiv
Milwaukee-based playwright Sara Lessmann has collaborated with actress/writer Larisa Muñoz on an immigrant drama that originally aired in the U.K. Produced in collaboration with the London-based Untold Collectiv, Caperucita tells the plight of immigrants across the southern U.S. border. Tragically real dangers faced by immigrants mix with dark fairy tale-style fantasy in a story that is staged for the screen in an intimate, little black box theater setting.
The hazards of immigration are personified in a wolf-headed villain who stalks those looking to escape harsh conditions elsewhere in hopes of making a go of it in the U.S. The wolf’s narration comes through with the cold simplicity of a voice-over as a humbly-dressed figure stacks the screen in a wolf mask. Costuming is simple. Muñoz and Fran Olivares play a couple of women discussing the dangers of transit across the southern border as they work.
The perils of passage are coldly represented by Duncan Hodgkinson Legoux in the role of “Lucas Lobos,” a man who can get immigrants across the border for the right price. The dark fairy tale settles across the screen with a ragged, sometimes elegant poetry. Muñoz is an admirable hero who has fallen into the path of Lucas. Legoux and Muñoz finesse a surprisingly intricate relationship for a narrative that only runs 22 minutes and doesn’t settle exclusively on them.
The politics of Caperucita could have weighed down the narrative down, but Lessman and Muñoz focus on the drama of danger strong enough to echo the realities of any perilous journey. It’s a roughly-rendered narrative that manages some emotionally engaging moments of true beauty in and around the shadows hanging heavily around the corners of the action.
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Caperucita is currently available for U.S. viewers on Untold Collectiv’s YouTube channel. For more information, visit
