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Together in the desert
Women turn up dead in the desert while cops throw innocent men in jail to satisfy the desire for justice. Among the Sand and Smog is a skillful character-driven story addressing one of the most talked-about human-rights issues of the past 10 years - the unsolved murders of dozens of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The victims' families can only ask why the culprits are still free, but playwright Beto O'Byrne shows us in three insular acts at the Cellar Theater that the line between innocent and guilty is anything but clear.
Rosario (Marisa Varela), the mother of a murdered girl, waits to speak at a women's-rights rally in Juárez. Varela is a true asset to Sand and Smog as the grief-stricken parent. Her voice is sweet and frail, and her natural gestures reveal that nothing will change after this rally. Shout solidarity all you want, but women...