It’s doubtful that many living people have had the experience of falling in love in a 1920’s Cuban cigar factory in Florida. Though it may not have been in a cigar factory, playwright Nilo Cruz has surely been in love. Cruz’s play Anna in the Tropics, currently showing at Arena Stage, proves that an authentic love story can be created and effectively portrayed despite an uncommon setting.
Cruz, who won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Anna in the Tropics, has written a script that is sheer poetry stretched tautly across the skeleton of a play. Many of Cruz’s lines are flowery, but it is their translational quality that lends them believability. More than one line sounds directly translated from Spanish, with the sentence structure not quite right. Spoken with light Spanish lisps, these lines create an ambience of authenticity that runs throughout the play.
In the 1920s cigars are still rolled by hand. As was the practice in cigar factories before industrialization, a “lector” reads to workers as they toil day after day stuffing, rolling and cutting their cigars. When the new lector at a small Cuban family’s Florida factory arrives from “the island” with Anna Karenina in his hand, he sets off waves of changes in each character’s life.
The factory’s owner, Santiago, is an endearing, alcoholic gambler whose devoted wife, Ofelia, the ultimate matriarch, has taken control of the company. Santiago’s half-brother Chech? from “up north” craves an opportunity to usurp power and introduce the modern gadgets that he believes are the key to the factory’s survival. Ofelia and Santiago have two daughters: Marela, a dreamy romantic who desires one true love, and Conchita, a pudgy housewife whose husband can’t seem to give her any attention. When Juan Julian and Anna Karenina come to Florida from the island, the lives and relationships of each character wind around the plot of the story. The book serves as a vehicle and catalyst for necessary changes in the lives of each character.
Communication between the men and the women in the play is rocky, and this disconnect is reflected in the setup of the stage. From the first scene the men stick to one side of the stage and women to the other. When one crosses into the domain of the other, aggression inevitably follows. The middle ground is where all understanding takes place. This masterly use of the stage allows the audience to visually track-and understand-the obstacles and solutions in the relationships between the characters.
A scene in which Ofelia (Marian Licha) presses Chech? (Chaz Mena) for information about a bet he made with her husband shows this theme in action. She ribs him until he tells her the truth, pushing him across the stage into a corner of his male domain as he retreats defensively from her laughing banter. Licha and Mena inject believability into their roles not only in this scene but also throughout the play. Cruz’s lines exemplify male/female differences while also showing his audience the curiosity and humor so evident in the Cuban culture.
Geography is infinitely important in both the production and the body of the play. Chech?, from the north, embodies much of the American-ness that makes him more foreign in the context of the play than Juan Julian, who is just off the boat from Cuba. Cultural dialogue abounds throughout the play.
The production helps deepen often obvious themes, making for an easily accessible and enjoyable two hours understandable on various levels. However, the actors never push the boundaries of their characters. Director Jo Bonney did not tug at the seams of any character in an attempt to pull out more substance. As a result, the characters are often too archetypal. The villain of the play offers few sympathetic traits, just as the lover exudes sex appeal and the dreamer keeps her head in the clouds throughout the run of the play.
Classical music accompanies set changes and certain scenes, but it’s not just any classical music: Many of the songs used are piano compositions of Ignacio Cervantes, the famed Cuban composer. Such details are Anna’s distinguishing characteristics. No opportunity, as small as set-change-composer choice, is missed to complete the authenticity of the story.
Chances are Cruz, Bonney and every single actor in the cast has fallen in love before. Each has felt betrayed, thought that the breakneck pace of life may very well break his or her neck, and has looked at the opposite sex with complete and total confusion. With attention to detail in its portrayal, such emotions are fluently translated to the entire audience of Anna in the Tropics.
Anna in the Tropics is playing through Nov. 21 at Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater at 1101 Sixth St. N.W. FiveTwentyFive tickets are available for purchase before 5:25 pm on the day of performance for patrons under 25 and on College Night, Oct. 14., for students with a valid I.D. For tickets, call 202-488-3300.
