‘Wolf at the Door’ features outstanding performances by the small cast
In her opening remarks to the audience, director Micaela Garcia de Benavidez noted a similarity between Wolf at the Door and the Brothers Grimm fairy tales we all may recall from childhood. The Brothers Grimm aimed to shed light on the difficult circumstances experienced by families and children, providing the opportunity to recall, discuss and process them. Su Teatro’s production of Wolf at the Door offers the same, described by the playwright as one of a series of “adult fairy tales,” and the darkest of her collection.
The play opens with Isadora, a young wife sporting a black eye in the final stages of childbirth. She is supported by Roció, Isadora’s childhood nurse and nanny, now her housekeeper. We immediately suffer along with Isadora while she endures the baby’s delivery, and the agony of learning her newborn is a stillbirth. When Isador’s husband Septimo enters and learns his newborn son did not survive, he — as usual — takes his anger out on his wife. Off in the distance, we hear the howling of wolves.
Shortly after the burial of the baby, Roció discovers another woman — a magical wolf lady named Yolot — in the barn. She is naked, pregnant and near the end-of-term. She brings her inside. Yolot also presents with an immediately raw emotion both inside and in her physicality (long, unruly, wavy hair that initially hides her entire face while she transitions from being like an animal outside in the barn to inside Isadora’s house where the two women try to comfort her). Her voice vacillates between sounding human and something wilder. Yolot is also not far from delivering her child.
Septimo quickly sees as an opportunity to steal Yolot’s baby to replace his own and avoid the shame of having to tell his family that he and his wife are otherwise defective in bearing a child. Septimo chains Yolot to the bed until she delivers her baby, and then leaves to shoot the wolves he hears in the distance.
The three women are superbly played by Paola Miranda (Isadora), Magally Luna (Roció) and Natalie Fuentes (Yolot). Steadily revealing their individual agonies, we watch as each undergoes her own metamorphosis as the fairy tale unfolds. Isadora, now forever changed after losing her son in childbirth, grows courageous on her own behalf as well as in protecting Yolot. Roció reveals her own past regrets, too scared to tell the truth about them. Yolot repeatedly reacts to the sounds of the wolves in the distance — her brothers calling for her awaiting her return.
The scenery, lighting and sound are minimal but intentional; the costumes simple yet offering a timeless feeling of place. Well played. The play is about 90 minutes, written with no intermission, although the production chose to give one. I wish they hadn’t. The story and production are so richly portrayed, the emotion and connection so intimate, the break interrupts the overall crescendo of the work.
Wolf at the Door is in part influenced by the Mesoamerican belief that dogs accompany souls on their journeys to the afterlife. Knowing that, you may think you know how the play ends, but it is well worth seeing for yourself.
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