Reviews for Anna in the Tropics

The average rating for Anna in the Tropics based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-01-15 00:00:00 Philip Bay Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz is the 2003 Pulitzer winner for drama, making Cruz the first Latin American to win the award. Taking place in 1929 in a cigar factory, the play tells a poignant story of workers who would listen to a lector read a story as they roll cigars. Enamored by the story, cigar workers would increase their production, making their job into an art. Anna in the Tropics is in homage to this art form lost to time gone by. In 1929 America is still under prohibition but the Cuban owned cigar factories in Tampa Bay governed their own rules and the rum flowed freely. This is how we find factory owner Santiago at the play's opening as he foolishly gambles away his money while drunk. His wife Ofelia and daughters Conchita and Marela have other ideas; they have paid for the passage of new lector Juan Julian Rios from Havana to boost the morale of the factory workers. The play opens as Santiago fritters away his money while the women wait for the boat. Juan Julian chooses to read from Anna Karenina. Even though it is summer, the book transports the workers to Moscow in winter. Cruz includes passages from the book in the play in order to authenticate the readings. After only the first few passages, the workers become enthralled in the novel for better or worse. Cheche, Santiago's half brother, thinks that the factory should do away with the lectors and replace workers with machines. Marela, captivated by the story, works faster but without attention to detail. Conchita and her husband Palomo engage in a real life Anna Karenina story of their own, leaving the reader engaged to find out if it ends up coming to head. Even though I am unfamiliar with Anna Karenina, I became captivated by the story as the workers did, wondering what would happen to the various love affairs. Cruz shows how the presence of a lector would boost worker morale as they listened to the story to break the monotony of worker. The play takes place at a time when modernity threatens the fabric of our country, as both machines and cigarettes look to replace workers and cigars. It is a faster, changing culture, and Cruz writes of a slice of a Cuban lifestyle that should not be forgotten. Creating memorable characters combined with a captivating story, I was enthralled with this play, even in written form. Nilo Cruz is the author of many plays which have been produced at many theaters and festivals throughout the country. Anna in the Tropics is his first award winning play, and its combination of time, story, and characters make it deserving of the Pulitzer. A window into time gone by, Anna in the Tropics takes us back to a simpler lifestyle. I look forward to reading Cruz' other plays, and now that my interest has been piqued, to reading Anna Karenina as well. A solid production translating well to written form, Anna in the Tropics is a solid 4 star read.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-06-14 00:00:00 Lisa Shaw "Everything in life dreams. A bicycle dreams of becoming a boy, an umbrella dreams of becoming the rain, a pearl dreams of becoming a woman, and a chair dreams of becoming a gazelle and running back to the forest." Nilo Cruz is the greatest poet the American theatre has produced since Tennessee Williams. And, like Williams, Cruz's women are beautifully drawn and realized. Lastly, no playwright has captured the steaminess of sex like Williams until Cruz burst upon the theatrical scene. Anna In The Tropics is set in 1929 in a Cuban-American cigar factory where cigars are still rolled by hand and "lectors" are employed to educate and entertain the workers. The arrival of a new lector is a cause for celebration, but when he begins to read aloud from Anna Karenina, he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropics, and the American dream prove a volatile combination. Nilo Cruz transports readers and audiences with the power of his language, leading us to the depths of his characters' passions. Cruz's play is a play for voices; it highlights the transformative powers of literature on the human mind and soul, and the unstoppable nature of progress in both people and business. The simple, essentially uneducated employees of a cigar factory in Tampa, Florida's Ybor City in 1929 are introduced to an unfamiliar, exciting world when their new lector, who breaks up the day's monotony by reading books and poetry aloud, Juan Julian, reads to them from Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. This sets off a chain of events that forces the characters to re-examine their lives and their outlooks on the world. Conchita, unhappily married to the unfaithful Palomo, begins an affair of her own (mirroring Anna Karenina's) with Juan Julian. Marela truly loses herself in the story to the point of neglecting much of the real world around her. The factory's owners, Santiago and Ofelia, are inspired to develop a new cigar, but they're facing trouble from one of the workers, Cheché, who is slowly buying up portions of the factory by covering Santiago's gambling debts. Cheché is steadfastly determined to end the tradition of the lector and modernize the entire operation. The battles between reality and fantasy and tradition and progress are played out as to mirror the struggles of the characters in Tolstoy's novel, with spoken passages used to further illuminate the play's events. Cruz is quite successful in documenting the transformation of the unassuming workers into more worldly, adventurous figures this way. And, as he's infused the script with plenty of light-hearted comedy, he's able to smooth over many of the play's rougher edges. However, there are problems with Cruz's script as well. As beautifully written as this script is, at times, it seems too calculated, too perfect. Also ACT II starts out with an extremely erotic and steamy scene, but as the act progresses, the passion that consumed two of the characters seems to peter out and much of the eroticism is lost as we focus on less interesting characters. In the end, Cruz has given us an exotic, beautifully written, if a little plot heavy, slice of Chekhovian drama sprinkled with some magical realism. Recommended. 4.5/5