Review: Empanada Loca

Who knew one of the premier theatrical events of early 2026 would be located down a dark alley in North Hollywood?

Immersive Scene Los Angeles 2026 review

Living underground in a Manhattan subway tunnel can screw with your mind, so, it’s quite remarkable that Dolores has such a sharp memory and a surprising willingness to share her woeful tale with a complete stranger who wanders into her dark domain. But Dolores is a great storyteller, and she likes to talk…about things unspeakable.  She wasn’t always living – hiding, really – beneath the tracks, but it’s probably better down here anyway than what lies up above, where her life began its wicked spiral.

In Empanada Loca, a one-act, solo-performed shocker of a play, the actress playing Dolores will tell you all about it.  All you have to do is listen…and watch out for the rats.    

Dolores, you see, is one complicated and spontaneously scary individual.  Prior to her subterranean move, a string of bad choices landed her in prison. When she finally got out, she discovered that her uptown NYC neighborhood had inexplicably been turned into yet another yuppie enclave for the haves, while the have-nots have been conveniently cleared away.  Washington Heights looks nothing like the place she left -  “They got a Chase Bank there now!” - and everything she once knew has vanished.  Her places are gone, her friends are gone, and her man, Dominic, he’s gone too.  It’s all gone…except Empanada Loca!

The food shop of her golden days - well, her slightly better days - somehow managed to hang on through the gentrification.  Hardly anyone eats there anymore, according to Dolores, but just the sight of it gave her hope that maybe there was still a life for her in this new unfamiliar, upper west side.  Maybe you can go home again.

It’s at that eatery where she had her first delectable mouthful of the best doughy pastry anywhere in the five boroughs – better even than she remembered from back in the day when she lived right upstairs and sold drugs with Dominic, the man she loved and mistakenly trusted.  Anyway, as she explains, things were going great until the cops banged down the door and she got busted.  Dominic fled – maybe.  Who knows? 

At Loca, she reconnects with Luis, the son of the long-gone owners.  His only goal these days is to keep the business afloat, empanada to empanada, even though the place is usually empty.  The monied hipsters just eat elsewhere.  Luis is clearly smitten with Dolores - always has been - and insists she take the empty basement room to live in and set up her massage table for work too. Her own little business to run.

So, things were finally looking up for Dolores.  She had some money coming in as a talented masseuse, her own room, a nice hot shower every day, plenty of delicious empanadas, and maybe even a future.  But, Luis got progressively stranger, and Dolores, herself, started exhibiting violent tendencies. It wasn’t long before some difficult clients and neighborhood pests started disappearing after visiting her massage table.  She, is, as mentioned, spontaneous.  Luis, for all his oddness, though, was always willing to clean things up.  Good news too: the hipsters were suddenly lining up to eat.  Whatever that amazingly delicious new meat was in the empanadas, suddenly had the place busier than ever. 

But, you know what they say, murder and cannibalism can only lead to trouble.  So, Dolores had nowhere to go but down - literally - into the subterranean world where she now exists among the mole people who dwell beneath New York City.  And from her dark cavern, she recounts her unbelievable tale from beginning to end. 

You’ll bear witness to it if you’re fortunate enough to get a ticket.

Empanada Loca is an edgy, enthralling piece of theatre that should not be missed.  The one-actor, one-act, show is impossible to look away from.  That’s a testament to Aaron Mark’s crisp writing and to Troy Heard’s unobtrusive and confident direction, but even more so to an incredible performance delivered by Amanda Guardado as Dolores.  It’s a gripping tour-de-force acting exhibition – a relentless monologue that grabs hold and never lets go. 

Mark’s disturbingly dark and, at times, surprisingly hilarious script arrives in Los Angeles courtesy of the Majestic Repertory Theatre in Las Vegas.   Before that, the play originated in 2015 at the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York.   While the story will feel somewhat familiar to anyone who knows Sweeny Todd, this clever reimagining of the meat-pie tale stands firmly on its own.  You'll likely lean into it the more lurid the details become, and you might find yourself holding your breath for long periods of time as the story gets creepier and creepier. 

Heard literally packed up the intimate show into a cube truck and drove it here from Sin City.  It’s a gift - and a must-see.  Like the truck he brought the show in on, the director smartly keeps it all spare – a dark space, a few props, and minimal yet effective lighting.  He knows the production needs nothing more than that to succeed, thanks to the commanding presence of his singularly talented actor.  

Guardado’s up-close performance draws you in fast, making you forget that you’re sitting in what feels like a backstage storage room of the larger After Hours Theatre on Vineland.  The tiny black box space, with its semi-comfortable folding chairs, quickly becomes theatre heaven the moment Dolores crawls out from behind a trash can on the minuscule stage.  What follows is an extended wow moment for the twenty or so audience members lucky enough to bear witness.  Guardado’s portrayal is by turns scary, heartbreaking, shocking, funny, and, thanks to her rapid-fire, impeccable delivery - never allows the rat-a-tat-tat-monologue to falter.  With nothing more than a shift in tone or posture, she conjures a full cast of characters from Dolores’s life, populating the stage with far more than one presence.   In the hands of Guardado, one actor is plenty perfect. 

In the end, you’ll ponder all that is Dolores and her wicked tale.  Did it really all happen as she claims?  Or, was it all just her imagination, the product of a mad mind only grown express-train-madder from living six stories down in IRT hell?  And what of Empanada Loca itself: a house of horrors only or perhaps the playwright’s way to also send a giant F@#$ Y*& to all that is wrong with the world today, served in the form of the tastiest treat 168^th Street has ever known?   

And we won’t judge you if you suddenly feel the urge to find an empanada shop while playing it all back in your mind. 

As a pre-show immersive experience, you’ll discover the rear of theatre has been tricked out to appear a subway entrance. Once inside, you’ll walk down a cobweb-filled corridor that sets the tone for Dolores' hidden chamber ahead.  Inside the tiny venue, you and only 24 others will be mere inches from the actor, making the intimate, eerie visit all the more impactful.

It doesn’t matter that you have to search out the faux subway entrance down a slightly sketchy NoHo alley to view this theatrical experience.  What’s waiting for you inside is well worth every step. 

Go see it.  Soon.

Empanada Loca

North Hollywood

February 5-28

Thursdays-Fridays-Saturdays

Tickets: $45.00