Now playing at The Classic Theatre of San Antonio is Nilo Cruz’ 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning play ‘Anna in the Tropics.’ There are still four more chances to see this dramatization of the lives of cigar factory workers in Ybor City, Tampa Florida; it runs until Sunday March 1. Showtimes are Friday and Saturday at 8p.m. and Sunday at 3p.m. Tickets start at $19 and are available online or by calling the box office at (210) 589-8450. On Sunday February 23, there will be a Community Conversation with Dr. Gerald Poyo from St. Mary’s University, whose great-grandfather was a lector, as well as the cast and director of the show. The story in ‘Anna in the Tropics’ revolves around a new lector, perhaps the last of his kind, and the lives that are affected when is hired and he begins to read from Anna Karenina, a novel of adultery set in nineteenth-century Russia.

‘Anna in the Tropics’ is set in 1929 Florida where cigars are still rolled by hand, and lectores are employed to educate and entertain the workers. It begins with Santiago (Philip Marzec) and CheChé (Joshua Segovia) betting at cockfights and when Santiago is on a losing streak, he asks CheChé for a loan. He agrees to the loan, but when they can not find a piece of paper to write a promissory note, Santiago carves it on the bottom of CheChé’s shoe with a knife and promises to give him part of the cigar factory if he does not repay the loan. Meanwhile, Marela (Josey Porras), Conchita (María A. Ibarra) and Ofelia (Marisa Varela) are at the seaport waiting for the cigar factory’s new lector, Juan Julian (Mark Riojas), to arrive. Juan Julian reports to work to begin his first reading and CheChé shows an immediate dislike to him because his wife ran away with the factory’s last lector. As Juan Julian begins reading Anna Karenina, the play delves into desire, power, rivalry, secrets and love. Conchita has an affair with Juan Julian to get back at her husband Palomo’s (Gabriel Itzcoatl Luera) own infidelity and CheChé’s dangerous and violent personality emerges when he kills Juan Julian and insistently pursues the young Marela. The group agrees to continue the tradition of reading and when Santiago suggests something other than Anna Karenina, Conchita states “stories should be finished or they suffer the same fate as those who die before their time.”

The need for culture, tradition and the arts is at the center of Nilo Cruz’ ‘Anna in the Tropics’ and The Classic Theatre should be commended for bringing this outstanding production to San Antonio. With universal themes like family, love, relationships and culture, it speaks to audiences everywhere about the importance of traditions as well as the inevitability of progress and change. The tradition of lectores is an impressive one because even though some of the workers were illiterate, they could quote Shakespeare and Tolstoy and had awareness of the world outside the factory. This is reflected throughout the play in the character’s poetic language, for example, when Ofelia comments on the silence after Juan Julian dies: “It’s as if a metal blanket has fallen on us” and in their thirst for the knowledge that the lector brings them. Standout scenes include when Juan Julian begins reading to the workers and when the group celebrates the launch of a new cigar with the ritual of passing the lit cigar around. Overall, excellent performances by everyone, but Mark Riojas does an outstanding job as Juan Julian and Josey Porras shines as the smart but naïve Marela. ‘Anna in the Tropics’ is a definite must see and despite a love scene, a provocative conversation between Palomo and Conchita meant to heat up their marriage and the normalization of cockfighting, it is worth experiencing on The Classic Theatre stage.