Dreams go up in smoke in Asolo Rep's 'Anna in the Tropics'

Nilo Cruz' Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Anna in the Tropics'' has hit the Asolo Repertory Theatre stage like a tropical heatwave. The action transpires in a Cuban-American cigar factory in Ybor City in 1929. Santiago Alcazar (Juan Luis Acevedo) owns this small family business. 

While the Great Depression has dawned, he’s not depressed. Santiago clings to old-school, low-tech ways. His workers still roll cigars by hand. A professional reader (a “lector”) still fills their minds with great literature as they toil, a tradition brought to the New World from Cuba.

As the play opens, a dapper new lector has just arrived. Juan Julian (Gabriell Salgado) takes the workers on a journey through Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina.” That story sparks dreams and desires. Both are intoxicating. Both prove dangerous.

Tolstoy’s epic romance entrances Santiago’s daughters.They’re equally enchanted by the charismatic new lector. Marela (Kanisha Marie Feliciano) — the spirited youngest daughter — develops an instant teenage crush that is unrequited.

Her older sister, Conchita (Jenyvette Vega), has a far deeper infatuation. She’s unhappily married to Palomo (Jose-Maria Aguila), an openly unfaithful underachiever. Enflamed by Tolstoy’s forbidden romance between the married Anna and Count Vronsky, Conchita takes a lover of her own — namely Juan Julian. He’s smart, classy, refined — and everything Palomo isn’t. 

Cheché (Nick Duckart) is Santiago’s volatile half-brother. Santiago’s success makes him feel like a failure — and he’s constantly angling to replace him. 

Santiago would typically keep his house in order. But after a night of hard drinking and unlucky gambling at the cockfights, cleverly enacted on stage without the use of any live fowl, he's paid off his debt by giving his Cheché a major share of the cigar factory. 

The family patriarch stays home to dry out for several weeks. While he's gone, Cheché tries to mechanize the factory. Santiago’s wife, Ofelia (Zuleyma Guevara), is a co-owner of the factory; she keeps him at bay. Santiago returns in time to stop his half-brother’s wicked scheme. At least that one.

Director Marcela Lorca grounds this play in realism. But she doesn’t ignore the “once-upon-a-time” quality of Cruz’ fable. The main characters and anonymous ensemble cast members move across the factory and dance floor with a fluid quality. At times, they seem like they’re moving under water — and that’s fitting.

Acevedo deftly conveys the family patriarch’s flawed nobility. Santiago’s a great man. A great man with a drinking and gambling problem, yes. But he’s still a great man. 

Guevara’s Ofelia is a strong, pragmatic and resilient woman. She’s fully aware of her husband’s flaws — and does the heavy lifting necessary to keep the family and the factory in one piece. 

Image courtesy of Adrian Van Stee

Salgado’s Juan can bring a story to life. But he’s also a ladies’ man — and he brings Conchita’s soul to life, too. Vega’s Conchita is a good woman in a bad marriage. You root for her when she revolts against her husband’s double standard. Before she embarked on her affair, Conchita used to be a self-effacing doormat. She transforms into a self-assured, passionate lover. 

Aguila’s Palomo is a complex and conflicted soul. He struggles with jealousy, desire and the complex equations of his marriage. Not a likeable fellow. But he has a small redemption. 

Feliciano’s Marela sings a song of innocence and inexperience. Her character wants what she wants — and doesn’t know what’s eating her elders. 

Duckart’s Cheché is a volatile, bitter human bomb. He’s lived in his older brother’s shadow all his life. Nobody at the factory likes him — but they all love Russian literature. And the man who reads it. Duckart makes you feel his character’s seething jealousy.

Ana Kuzmanić’s flowing costumes evoke Florida’s relentless heat in the days before air-conditioning. Workers are transformed by her finery as they turn out to celebrate a new cigar brand bearing the name of Tolstoy's heroine. 

Regina García’s factory set flows, too — and subtly changes to suit the director’s mercurial sense of motion. While “Anna in the Tropics” isn’t a musical, it often feels like one. Dayramir Gonzalez’s original compositions and live piano playing create that feeling. And capture the play’s emotional heartbeat. That rhythm is complex.

“Anna in the Tropics” is a tapestry of plot threads and characters. What’s the play about? That’s a multiple-choice question.

It’s a play about the power of literature — and the dangers of that power. It’s a story about storytelling itself. And an elegiac lament for the end of the old ways. The Ybor City of Cruz’ play is a lost world.

Nothing lasts forever — not even memories. The playwright surely knows it. But he’s determined to keep the memories alive. For as long as he can.