"Anna in the Tropics" is the brainchild of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Nilo Cruz. It is a story of old lovers who have weathered the better and the worse of life together, new lovers who fall unexpectedly and passionately, and unrequited love turned to madness.
The play focuses on the life of a Cuban family that runs a Florida cigar factory during the 1920s. Defying the overwhelming thrust toward modernity, the family insists on operating the old - fashioned way - rolling their own cigars instead of using the new, efficient machines. As their Cuban tradition dictates, the factory must have a lector, an employee who reads to workers as they labor in the oppressive Floridian heat.
Mateo Gomez plays the father, Santiago, and gives a realistic performance as a gambling drunk. He keeps an unkempt appearance. He totters home late from cockfights and vacillates between exaggerated fits of laughter and whimpers of self-pity. His wife, Ofelia (Marian Licha), is the strong matriarch who rules both the factory and the home with a benevolent yet firm hand.
However, the best performance comes from Chaz Mena as the wounded and ambitious Cheche. In a tete-a-tete with Santiago, Cheche admits that his wife's adultery and subsequent departure left him like "a lizard with its tail cut off." Mena makes an excellent paradox of Cheche. Although on the surface he looks like a dignified gentleman, his fitful mannerisms hints at his hidden violent nature.
The set does not offer much insight into the lives of the characters. The family seems to have an isolated, self-sustaining life that doesn't require interaction with other members of the community. Although there exists the illusion that the factory is full of workers, the audience's eyes beg for physical representation of the masses. For instance, when deciding on something that would affect the whole workforce, Ofelia puts it to a vote and looks out into nothingness counting the imaginary hands. Moreover, without reading the playbill, it is likely to think that the play is set in Cuba, because the characters refer to anything American as "Northern." It seems that America is a place as exotic to the family as the Russia of "Anna Karenina" they have imagined from the lector's readings.
The spare set does not help frame the characters' lives. Apart from the actual cigars they smoke, props are used sparingly. The factory consists of two old desks, a few chairs and tall chair for the lector. The set design of the house consists of a brightly painted wall, plastic flowers and a couch. The bright colors are a clear reference to the family's Caribbean origin. However, the house fails to convey anything substantial about any of characters.
The lector's reading of Tolstoy's epic tale enthralls the characters, inspiring within them lust, jealousy and even fatal passion. However, Jason Manuel Olazabal gives an uninspiring performance as the dashing young lector, Juan Julian, who enjoys books and one of Ofelia's young daughters. Olazabal makes Juan Julian an indifferent lover to Yetta Gottesman's vivacious Conchita, so much so that his death is likely to leave the audience more sympathetic toward the killer. Gottesman's Conchita is a sharp contrast to Julian. She's the liveliest and most sensual character in the play.
When Palomo, played by Felix Solis, asks his wife, Conchita, what her lover talks about, she answers frankly, "Things a woman likes to hear, that I taste sweet...private things...obscenities. He pounds so hard inside of me as if to kill me."
Michele Vazquez's Marela is the youngest and most disappointing character. Vazquez renders the 22- year - old Marela, into is a na?ve adolescent with romantic dreams, though she is quick-witted and has a very sharp tongue. It is not only Vazquez's fault; author Nilo Cruz mired this character with nonsensical lyrical lines that sometimes get a laugh, and other times confound the audience and make Marela look infantile.
Despite Cruz's tendency to go overboard with poetry, the script is sensual and witty. Choncita's lines make the younger members of the audience giggle. Cruz also adds a few smart quips on American culture for a laugh. Juan Julian asks, " Why do Americans prohibit such a wonderful thing as liquor?"
"Because American are like criminals when they drink," says Santiago, grinning.
