"ANNA IN THE TROPICS" TRANSPORTS ITS AUDIENCE TO THE 1920s

By Cheryl A. Post
Contributing Writer

The Broward College Fine Arts Theatre presented Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “Anna in the Tropics” from March 19-28 at Central Campus directed by Mariah R. Johnson.

Set in the 1920s in the area of Ybor City, Fla. (a city founded by Vicente Martinez-Ybor in the late 1800s as a cigar manufacturing center) the play centers around a Cuban-American family and their business of hand rolling cigars while the country is on the verge of a major depression.

Johnson (director) added in the playbill that “Political and Economic forces created a sense of unease in Americans, but possibly more was felt by the community of refugees who came to Florida seeking to preserve a way of life and culture of tradition.” She went on to add that, “In this play the old ways are being challenged by an increasingly industrialized and mechanized society, not unlike today’s struggle between the analog and digitized manner in which we work, play and communicate with one another.”

The supporting cast, upon much research, depicted “Anna in the Tropics” in a very real and genuinely believable way and included (in order of appearance): Eliades (Anderson Freitas); Santiago (Jonathan Varillas); head of the family business, husband to Ofelia and father to Conchita and Marela, Cheche (Michael Rodney); the boisterous half brother who helps with the business Ofelia (Lillian Franky); wife to Santiago and matriarch of the family, Conchita (Natalia Sanchez); the eldest daughter, Marela (Sophie Snyder); the youngest daughter and Juan Julian (Issam Villamil) the much anticipated lector. Other cast members included 4 travelers that included: Peppino (Andres Maldonado); Palomo (Juan David Botero); Manola (Elisa Welch) and Pascual Torino (Yamil Jaman).

The play begins with Ofelia, Cochita and Marela anticipating the arrival of Juan Julian (the lector) by ship and the gambling of Santiago and Cheche.
From the beginning of the play the cast used all their abilities and put their hearts into the portrayal of their characters. Love, lust, betrayal, infidelity, loyalty, dedication and humor are all elements of the everyday happenings in and around the cigar factory. Juan Julian begins his first lecture with the reading of Tolstoy’s novel, “Anna Karenina” and this great work of literature educates and forever transforms those who listen.

Their lives come undone at the seams as Santiago begins to neglect the business, indebted to Cheche because of gambling, as well as spending too much time with the bottle and with Ofelia forced to take his place, she bears the burden of running the business and “keeping her girls’ feet on the ground.”

This is not an easy task as Conchita falls for the lector, who doesn’t value machines and says, “The words he reads are like a breeze that breaks the monotony of the factory,” and the passion rises. As her husband becomes aware of the affair the he contemplates the words read by the lector and seeks to win back the heart of his wife.

Marela dreams of going to Russia and the affect the book has on her is evident in the power of her words as she speaks. Her dreams are brought to an end when she is attacked by Cheche whose thoughts turn to his dead wife on a daily basis because of the words from the novel. Now it seems that she is alone and lost in a world of sadness because of being unable to reveal what happened.

After all is said and done the family pulls together and human communication on their part is at the forefront. Towards the end of the second and final act, the family is decorating for a celebration, one that Santiago (who is back in control of himself and the family business) says “will last all day long – that of gypsies and bohemian!”

The celebration is the introduction of a new cigar, “Anna Karenina” and Marela is chosen by her father to be on the label. All in attendance sample the new cigar and sing its praises, but a surprise twist happens when Cheche kills Juan Julian (the lector) in cold blood during the celebration. Though they are devastated, they continue the reading of the novel as a sort of memoriam and life continues.

The cast as a whole were very in tune with their characters and gave strong performances, but it was the part of Ofelia (Sanchez) that I walked away the most impressed by. She made me think, feel and laugh, and there was a moment in the play when Santiago says to Ofelia, “I try to take inventory of what I have done wrong, every time I lose. I feel as if something has been taken away from me.” As he looks into her eyes, Ofelia replies, “If you had lost me, I would not be here. If you had lost me, I would not be by your side.”

Perhaps Marela sums it up best when she says in Act 2, “We work hard enough. We deserve all that life offers us, and life is made of little moments, little moments as small as violet petals. Little moments I could save in a jar and keep forever, like now….”