According to Beatriz the reason there is so much rain in the Bronx is that "God is always crying for the souls there". She is explaining this to Destiny a young girl of 10 whom she has recently kidnapped and has hidden in her apartment building's basement (deeply religious, Beatriz observed that Destiny's mother was not fit to raise her so she decided to take the responsibility herself). This proves to be problematic in that both Bea and Destiny live in the same building and Bea's husband Americo is its superintendent. The building and soon the whole neighborhood is involved with locating Destiny. Unknown to either Bea or Americo, however is that Destiny has an imaginary friend who has taken up residence in the boiler and is going to help her escape.
Devil Land works best when it keeps its focus on its dark, collective subject matter. Bea's mother abandoned her at a young age and she was brought up by an Evangelical grandmother while Americo starts to secretly lust for Destiny due to Bea's sexual frigidity. There is a rather interesting, ongoing argument between Bea's morbid Catholicism and the naturalistic, somewhat pagan Tainos that Destiny's mother taught her to believe in. Bea and Americo lost their only son under somewhat mysterious circumstances. All of these themes make for a powerful emotional content. It's when author Desi Moreno-Penson veers into the fantastic that the work falters. The boiler/best friend starts sputtering instructions to Destiny and lighting up like something out of the Wizard of Oz (credit must be given to Ryan Elliot Kravetz's design however, in making the construction imaginative and somewhat believable). We keep waiting for the play to return to its realistic and more interesting roots as it becomes more and more phantasmagorical.

Ms. Moreno-Penson is blessed with a great artistic team. Vanessa Aspillega is sensational as Bea. She finds just the right balance between Bea's religious self-righteousness and her damaged self-esteem. Bryant Mason as Americo matches her perfectly as her vulnerable yet stalwart husband/partner in crime. Jenny Seastone Stern as Destiny brings the required toughness yet secret fragility of a typical urban child. Jose Zayas keeps the action taut even when the play slides into hysteria and Jorge Arroyo's moody lighting adds to the basement gloom. Devil Land proves to be an intriguing rift on the usual demon seed story; one looks forward to more disciplined work from the author in the future. C+

...end