By Charles Brousse
Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics is a steep mountain to climb for any theater company, especially one that is community-based and has an audience that is perhaps unaccustomed to this kind of material. Yes, the script took home a Pulitzer Prize in 2003, but that recognition is based more on literary merit than the ease of bringing it to life on stage. Recognizing this, producers at small nonprofit venues around the country are reluctant to add Anna to their season schedules—which is a shame because Cruz’s drama skillfully explores some important elements in our history and deserves a wider audience.
With this background, one has to congratulate the Ross Valley Players (RVP) for putting on their boots and hiking up the mountain as far as they have in the production currently on view in the company’s Barn Theatre.
Why is the play such a challenge for a theater company like RVP? I think the answer can be found in three words: Ethnicity, passion and style. As for ethnicity, Anna is a true expression of Hispanic culture, and there aren’t many Hispanic actors in the white American suburbs. In fact, there aren’t many Hispanic actors around, period—particularly ones whose craft is well-developed enough to convincingly portray Cuban exiles living in Florida in 1929. You have to have a certain look, body movement and voice.
If you’ve ever watched a series episode on Telemundo, or seen a play by Federico García Lorca, you’ll know what I mean by “passion.” It oozes out of every pore of the characters, sometimes romantically, sometimes in heated arguments over (in Anna) an issue as seemingly inconsequential as the quality of a newly introduced cigar, sometimes blood red. That’s not easy for laid-back products of American culture—performers, or audiences—to identify with.
Finally, the Hispanic literary tradition from Miguel de Cervantes to the “magic realism” of Jorge Luis Borges and his latter-day followers operates in a stylized world in which logic often gives way to unexpected, frequently confusing twists and turns in the narrative, frequently accompanied by lyrical, quasi-poetic dialogue.
Given these hurdles, RVP’s Anna at least captures the essential core of the play. In the opening scene, Cruz establishes his two main themes. On one side of the stage, alcohol-enflamed Santiago (Mark Albi), patriarch of the family that owns a small factory in Ybor City, Florida, famous for its handcrafted Cuban-style cigars, joins a few other men as they boisterously cheer their favorites in a cockfight. When his choices lose, he borrows money from his half-brother Cheche (Ben Ortega), putting up part ownership of the property for security. Another loss sets up an intense family struggle. Cheche favors modernization of the firm’s production methods—including a switch from hand to machine wrapping and other changes that will increase productivity, but also eliminate jobs and long-established traditions. But Santiago, backed by family members, firmly defends the old ways.
On the opposite side of the stage, Santiago’s wife Ofelia (Hallie Frazer) and their two daughters, Conchita (Regina Morones) and Marela (Neiry Rojo) excitedly await the imminent arrival of their new lector. This is one of the customs carried over from Cuba—using an educated reader who can entertain and enlighten the workers as they go through the tedious work of rolling cigars. Their anticipation is amply rewarded when Juan Julian (William H. Bryant, Jr.) appears. He’s well-dressed, handsome and smooth of manner and voice. His choice of reading matter is Tolstoy’s great romantic novel, Anna Karenina (thus the play’s title) and within days, most of the workers—especially the women—are caught in its thrall. One major exception is Cheche, whose wife left him for a previous lector. That fact, and a frustration-driven sexual assault on Marela that puts him in disrepute, lead to the play’s tragic ending.
Returning to the metaphor that began this review, under Mary Ann Rodgers’ direction, RVP’s production threads its way up through a mountain of passion and intrigue until, given the challenges mentioned, it can go no further. Sometimes, reaching the top isn’t all that important.
NOW PLAYING Anna in the Tropics runs through June 19 in the Barn Theatre, Marin Art & Garden Center, Ross; 415/456-9555; rossvalleyplayers.com.
