Miss You Like Hell

I didn’t do anything about DVDs, Blu-Rays, A/V systems or even solar energy today. Instead, Diane and I went to see the City Lights/Teatro Visión co-production of “Miss You Like Hell“.

Even though I’d read the program and some of the background info, I really didn’t know what to expect. My heart sank a bit when the show started and I saw that there were bilingual supertitles just above the stage – I was afraid I’d be spending the whole show reading the supertitles instead of watching and listening to the actors. As it turned out, almost all of the dialog and the songs are in English, with Spanish being used where it added impact or flavor (and the supertitles were hardly ever necessary for me to figure out what they were saying).

The play is about a mother and daughter taking a cross-country road trip; the mother is an undocumented immigrant who’s trying to avoid deportation, and the daughter is 16 and hasn’t seen her mother in four years. I’d say hilarity ensues, and there was a little of that, but the story is more serious than that – and it felt very real. The music added to the story, and the set design was a delight. The ending was satisfying and meaningful – I’d say more, but I don’t want to give anything away.

My only quibble is that the actor playing the mother didn’t look much older than the actor playing the daughter – I had to really exercise my suspenders of disbelief on that front.

The show runs through February 26 (though the final weekend will be at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, not City Lights). Highly recommended!