Filling the Silence With Poetry and Passion

Anna in the Tropics

On a steamy Summer day in Tampa, Florida, three women wait anxiously at the docks, searching for a ship to arrive. This vessel will carry Juan Julian to them, their handsome, new, much-anticipated lector. He will replace the previous lector, who died several weeks ago. The lector’s job is to read novels aloud to the employees of this small, family-owned Cuban cigar manufacturing company, while they work. Juan’s mellifluous voice will transport the immigrant laborers, who are mostly female, to a far more interesting and romantic world than their own. Reading from his books fills the silence with poetry and passion, and alleviates the monotony of the hand-rolling, sorting and packaging cigars. As some of the workers push for modernization and change, it soon becomes clear that not everyone at the factory likes having the lector around.

Nilo Cruz’s 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama depicts the experience of being Cuban American in Ybor, Florida in 1929. The play premiered in Miami but eventually found a home on Broadway. Since that time, the prolific Latino playwright’s drama has been staged all over the country. Cruz fills his story with a tension and a definite lyrical quality, infusing the play with poetic imagery and rhythms and colorful phrasing.

Juan Julian arrives to the open arms of the three women of the Alcalar cigar-making family. They’ve missed having a lector reading to them as they work, stirring their emotions and caressing their imagination with exotic characters, stories and images from world literature. With funds being tight, Ofelia Alcalar has used her own money to bring Julian to Tampa. Her daughters, Conchita and Marela, are especially excited to meet the new lector and see what book he’s going to begin reading to them. It turns out to be Leo Tolstoy’s tragic, romantic Russian novel, Anna Karenina. Their father, Santiago Alcalar, who owns and manages the cigar factor, often drinks to excess and gambles away his money. However, he’s also devoted to his factory and his employees. Santiago prefers his factory being managed the way it’s always been run. He wants the personal touch of cigars being rolled by hand. He also sees the value having a lector, to entertain his employees and keep them happy while they work. 

Two of the other family members working at the cigar factory are having, or have had, marital problems. Factory Supervisor, Cheche is Santiago’s hot-tempered, opinionated brother-in-law. He strongly feels it’s time to enter the 20th century and bring in machines to make the cigars. However, since Cheche’s wife left him for another man, he’s become hollow, cold and cantankerous. Because there’s no romance left inside of him Cheche is against wasting money on a someone reading silly love stories aloud to the employees while they work. 

Palomo, Conchita’s philandering husband, who also works at the factory, becomes jealous of the attention his wife is devoting to the handsome and charismatic lector, Juan Julian. Despite being unfaithful in his marriage, Palomo thinks what’s good for the gander isn’t necessarily good for the goose. However, he soon finds that his wife, who begins the play as a sad, spurned woman, starts changing her appearance, cutting her hair and becoming quite provocative and much happier at work. The novel being read to the workers begins to resonate with Conchita and she gradually turns into the book’s titular character. Even youngest daughter, Marela, finds herself seduced by the lector’s reading, and the romance of Anna Karenina fills her with ideas. In fact, every female employee falls under Juan Julian’s spell, as he reads. As expected, violence and tragedy strikes before the story ends, but the biggest surprise comes in the drama’s final moments.

Laura Alcalá Baker directs Nilo Cruz’s masterpiece giving full attention to the play’s lyrical tone. This lyricism becomes the underlying music and rhythm of her entire production. The whole cast, including three talented ensemble members, provide instrumental accompaniment, seductive singing and choreographic clapping and stomping to make this play both poetic and musical. Kudos, in particular, to Tina Munoz Pandya for her lovely instrumental and vocal contributions. Lauren M. Nichols’ excellent scenic design works well with the action and provides a moody atmosphere, complete with movable furnishings and an overhead skylight. 

Ms. Baker’s cast is captivating and talented. Charin Alvarez’s Ofelia is, as always, absolutely wonderful. That smooth, velvety voice is so distinctive and soothing that Ms. Alvarez commands the stage whenever she speaks. Handsome Arash Fakhrabadi is completely enthralling as lector, Juan Julian. He effortlessly lights up the stage and charms almost everyone, especially the women. Eduardo Xavier is terrific as the surly Cheche. As the play progresses the audience is able to understand his pain and desperation to be part of the romance cast by the lector’s spell. That he has no idea how to achieve what he wants is what makes Cheche such a tragic figure.

Krystal Ortiz’s sly portrayal of Conchita begins with the subtle looks and whispered comments of a depressed woman. But as the play moves forward we begin to see frustration and discouragement with a loveless marriage. By the second act, Ms. Ortiz has evolved into a new, stronger character, completely transformed by Juan Julian’s presence and attention. Young Alix Rhode is a breath of fresh air. She’s sweet and delightful as Marela. As Conchita’s younger sister, Ms. Rhode turns in a performance as a realistic and impressionable teenager, who’s easily given to romantic notions and flights of fancy. When she’s violated later in play, the audience reacts in horror and supports her reaction to the situation. Dano Duran is appropriately boisterous and paternal as Santiago and is particularly fine as the figurehead of his cigar manufacturing facility. And Roberto Mantica has some very good moments as Palomo, a character within whom it’s difficult to find anything appealing or relatable, until the final moments of the play.

The range, color, tone and music of Nilo Cruz’s drama is the result of the fine guidance and trust instilled by Director Laura Alcalá Baker. A challenge for any director to bring so much passion to the stage, Ms. Baker has achieved success with this production. She’s leaned into the language and stressed Cruz’s lyrical dialogue. And with a capable, truly talented cast of actors, a night of poetry and passion await audiences that is as entertaining as it is enlightening.

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented February 8-March 19 by Remy Bumppo at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago.

Tickets are available in person at the box office, by calling 773-975-8150 or by going to www.remybumppo.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.