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Alebrijes are brightly colored sculptures of fantastical creatures rooted in Mexican mythology. Pedro Linares first sculpted his alebrijes from papier-mâché back in the mid-1930s, re-creating what he saw during an illness-induced hallucination (the word “alebrije” also came to him in this state), though artists across Mexico now use copalwood more commonly to make them. They aren’t historically tied to Día de Muertos, but alebrijes have become culturally bound to the holiday over the past 90 years.
Milagro Theatre pays homage to Linares’ impact on Día de Muertos and Mexican culture with its play ¡Alebrijes!, which runs through Nov. 9. The play is part of Milagro’s 30th annual Día de Muertos seasonal celebration, which this year includes the Latinx theater company’s annual gala and a mobile altar-making workshop for a subsequent bike ride. ¡Alebrijes!, meanwhile, is a mournfully festive cross-pollination of Mexican iconography surrounding art, death, familia and amor para siempre.
Death is not the end, as Día de Muertos teaches, but rather an integral part of life. Written by Georgina Escobar, ¡Alebrijes! takes this lesson to heart as audiences transport across history: present-day San Luis Potosí, Xochimilco circa 1936, and the timelessly psychedelic, interdimensional Oaxacan jungle afterlife.
Struggling artist Pedro (Yosmel López Ortiz) and his brother Manuel (Riplie Sugden) sell their art in a public market. Manuel runs off with their earnings and is seduced by La Muerte, presented as a recognizable Catrina—another piece of modern art now heavily associated with Día de Muertos first created by fellow contemporary folk artist José Guadalupe Posada—in mortal form (Christine Kruse).
When news of Manuel’s passing reaches Pedro, it’s their pets—Felipe “El Gallo” Ramírez (the rooster, played by Enrique Eduardo Andrade), Florinda “La Pata” (the duck, played by Carolina Selva), and the sassy Balam/Bartolomeo (the cat, played by Riplie Sugden)—who unravel the implications of Manuel’s death, eventually leading them to La Muerte and the spirit realm itself.
The three animals are scene stealers. El Gallo’s throaty quiquiriquí and La Pata’s continuous laying of cascarones deliver moments of levity that break tension with hilarious precision. Sugden’s portrayal of Balam/Bartolomeo the cat is delightfully queer-coded, with all the requisite sass, apathy and mystique of a proper feline spirit guide.
Despite the concern of his pets, and love interest, Alejandra (Ximena Morales), Pedro’s despair brings him to the precipice of life and death, where, after imbibing himself into oblivion during Día de Muertos, he soon finds himself navigating the land of the dead to find his brother.
Performed bilingually in English and Spanish, ¡Alebrijes! finds its truest groove in Act 2. The utilization of black lights, neons, puppetry, and incredible mask work brings a layer of this lore into brilliant relief. In this world, Pedro and La Muerte are each portrayed by intricate puppet effigies, expertly crafted in by Yosmel López Ortiz, and the trippy jungle backdrop ripples and blossoms in a hypnotic glow—a dazzling representation of the underworld that teems with soulful color, movement and sound.
Alejandra (Ximena Morales) presents a playful yet controlled foil to Ortiz’s often manic portrayal of Pedro. Their unrequited-turned-reunited love is a through line that calls Pedro back to the world of the living, giving the production a tender emotional depth, as well as a few campy, slapstick moments that call to mind Mexican TV comedies like Chespirito and El Chavo del Ocho.
Both earnest and screwball in its delivery, and with a set design that’s both creatively kaleidoscopic and lushly authentic, this fantastical retelling of Pedro Linares’ life strays only subtly from the artist’s actual lore. In Escobar’s interpretation, it’s not a break in his fever but Pedro’s love for Alejandra and his own alebrijes that rescue him from his near-death experience, revealing the importance of relationships, nurturing artistic potential, and achieving eternal life through legacy.
But cultural resonance and artistic appreciation aside, a main takeaway from ¡Alebrijes! was that life, death, love, family, culture and imagination are all so messily intertwined that none can exist without the other, and it is a tangle worth celebrating long after we’ve left the earthly plane.
SEE IT: ¡Alebrijes! at Milagro Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., 503-236-7253, milagro.org. 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 7 and 8; 2 pm Sunday, Nov. 2 and 9. $30 ($26 seniors, $22 students). 12+.
