HOLIDAY STAGE REVIEWS : Terrific Energy in ‘Pastores’

It may be rough around the edges, but director Ruben Amavizca’s modern version of the traditional pastorela or Christmas play, “Pastores de la Ciudad” (“City Shepherds”), written by Mexico’s Emilio Carballido and Luisa Josefina Hernandez has terrific energy.

Presented in English and Spanish (see below), the play focuses on the plight of an assortment of hard and hard-up city types.

It’s Christmas Eve and there’s misery in the street. Lovers quarrel; a flower vendor is robbed of her wares, a maid of her purse; a desperate mother abandons her child; a drunken father berates his loving son; a butcher chases his cow with a cleaver; a homeless couple search for a place where the wife can have her baby.

While a gardener narrates, a very devil of an Immigration cop ( la migra ), wreaks mischief in red horns and tail. Everyone ends up in a madcap chase on a collision course. But compassion prevails as the child is born, the gardener is revealed as an angel, the humble are rewarded and the insular rich and phony-pious roast in Hades.

A wistful ballad sung by a friendly character named Bato adds to the mellowness. Enhanced by broad visual symbolism and a free-wheeling mix of humor, music, myth and primitivism, the overstatement of the presentation only enhances its charm.

* “Pastores de la Ciudad,” Grupo de Teatro Sinergia. Civic Theatre, Huntington Park , Tuesday-Thurday, 8 p.m., in Spanish. United Methodist Church of Hollywood, Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at noon and 7 p.m., in Spanish. United Methodist Church, Olvera Plaza, next Wednesday-Dec. 21, 7 p.m., in English, as part of Las Posadas. Running time: 1 hour.