[.ca] Anna in the Tropics (ISBN 1580813348)

For this, a Pulitzer?:
I have lived in Tampa most of my thirty eight years on this planet so I am instantly attracted to anything in The Tampa genre. However, this play will put you to sleep. Its a pity because the Ybor City district of Tampa is ideally suited for a play especially one dealing with the history of cigars. Buy Nitol instead!

Escape to a Different World:
Take a break of a few minutes from your life and venture into the colorful world of this Florida cigar factory. The story is hardly new. It is a story about love, family, and change. A warm and inviting play that will make you wish that you worked in an old fashioned cigar factory.

All plays are meant to be seen, not read.:
There is a review here about this play being better to see than to read. This should be true of all plays, since that's their purpose. In fact, if you really enjoy reading a play, in the same exact way you enjoy reading a novel- it very likely may not be a good play & should in fact be a novel instead. Having said that, I believe Anna in the Tropics is a great and beautiful play. Reading it I can see how wonderful it would be to see on the stage; watching these very real characters go through their vulnerable journeys; I enjoyed my copy thoroughly.

A well-made play with a Chekovian atmosphere:
I saw this play on Broadway and later directed a staged reading of it in a University setting... it's really a lovely piece and grows on you the more you work with it. There are no weak parts -- seven strong characters all have significant roles (Eliades is a cameo, but can be doubled by Palomo). The setting (a cigar factory in 1929 Tampa) is unusual, as is the situation (the lector reads classic literature to the workers as they hand-roll cigars). While some of the script uses phrases that suggest classic Latino "magical realism", the real magic is in the experience of a group of people becoming lost in a piece of literature, as the Russia of Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" lives again in Florida. There is an abundance of romance along with social realism, as the cigar-rolling machines threaten a traditional way of life. This play is best performed in an intimate space -- I recommend Spanish guitar music for the scene changes and comfortable seats for the audience to relax and soak up the language and Caribbean atmosphere of this poetic drama. It works on a lot of different levels and would be great to read in a classroom or use as the basis of a term paper. (I'm writing one now.)

A nice read, better to be seen:
I was quite excited to read this play after hearing the playwright speak and read excerpts from it. However, I found out that this is a play better suited to be seen than read. Reading it cannot possibly capture the rhythm of the Cuban characters speech that Cruz has aptly recreated. \oI should know, as I live in Miami\c Cruz had done a lot of research on Ybor City, but it seemed to not come through as vividly as one might think. \oI've been to the charming little city\c Sure, one could easily find historical data that points to the lectors and Cuban cigar makers: but that is information easily found and known. Still, there are lines that are just plain beautiful and make the reader stop and say "Hmmm..." But in this writer's opinion, Cruz' "Beauty of the Father" is much more poetic, deeper, and beautiful. Maybe the Pulitzer should have gone to that one.