Anna in the Tropics Read online
Table of Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgments
PRODUCTION HISTORY
CHARACTERS
TIME AND PLACE
ACT ONE
SCENE 1
SCENE 2
SCENE 3
SCENE 4
SCENE 5
ACT TWO
SCENE 1
SCENE 2
SCENE 3
SCENE 4
SCENE 5
Copyright Page
My special appreciation and gratitude to Janice Paran
for her wisdom and advice in helping me
restructure the second act of this play.
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Anna in the Tropics was commissioned by New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida (Rafael de Acha, Artistic Director; Eileen Suarez, Managing Director). It received its world premiere there on October 12, 2002. The director was Rafael de Acha; set design was by Michelle Cumming, costume design was by Estela Vrancovich, lighting design was by Travis Neff; the composer and sound designer was M. Anthony Reimer and the production stage manager was Margaret M. Ledford. The cast was as follows:
SANTIAGO Gonzalo Madurga
CHECHÉ Ken Clement
OFELIA Edna Schwab
MARELA Ursula Freundlich
CONCHITA Deborah L. Sherman
PALOMO Carlos Orizondo
JUAN JULIAN David Perez-Ribada
ELIADES Carlos Orizondo
Anna in the Tropics was subsequently developed and produced by the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey (Emily Mann, Artistic Director; Jeffrey Woodward, Managing Director) on September 18, 2003. It was the inaugural production of their new Roger S. Berlind Theatre. The director was Emily Mann; set design was by Robert Brill, costume design was by Anita Yavich, lighting design was by Peter Kaczorowski, sound design was by Dan Moses Schreier; the producing director was Mara Isaacs, the dramaturg was Janice Paran, the director of production was David York and the production stage manager was Cheryl Mintz. The cast was as follows:
SANTIAGO Victor Argo
CHECHÉ David Zayas
OFELIA Priscilla Lopez
MARELA Vanessa Aspillaga
CONCHITA Daphne Rubin-Vega
PALOMO John Ortiz
JUAN JULIAN Jimmy Smits
ELIADES John Ortiz
This production of Anna in the Tropics then transferred to Broadway at the Royale Theatre on November 16, 2003, with the same artistic team and cast. It was produced by Roger Berlind, Daryl Roth, Ray Larsen, in association with Robert G. Bartner.
CHARACTERS
SANTIAGO
Owner of a cigar factory, late fifties
CHECHÉ
His half-brother; half-Cuban, half-American, early forties
OFELIA
Santiago’s wife, fifties
MARELA
Ofelia and Santiago’s daughter, twenty-two
CONCHITA
Her sister, thirty-two
PALOMO
Her husband, forty-one
JUAN JULIAN
The lector, thirty-eight
ELIADES
Local gamester, runs cockfights, forties
TIME AND PLACE
1929. Tampa, Florida. A small town called Ybor City.
SET
An old warehouse.
COSTUMES
These workers are always well dressed.
They use a lot of white and beige linen and their clothes
are always well pressed and starched.
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE
After 1931, the lectors were removed from the factories,
and what remained of the cigar rollers consisted of
low-paid American workers who operated machines.
The end of a tradition.
Quotations from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy:
“Looking at him” (PAGE 26)
Part 2, Chapter 11
“If there are as many minds” (PAGE 35)
Part 2, Chapter 7
“At first Anna sincerely thought” (PAGE 45)
Part 2, Chapter 4
“Anna had stepped into a new life” (PAGE 47)
Part 2, Chapter 11
“Anna Karenina’s husband did not see anything peculiar” (PAGE 62)
Part 2, Chapter 8
“Anna Karenina prepared herself for the journey” (PAGE 78)
Part 1, Chapter 29
“In his youth, Anna Karenina’s husband had been intrigued” (PAGE 81)
Part 3, Chapter 13
“By the time he arrived in Petersburg” (PAGE 84)
Part 3, Chapter 14
ACT ONE
SCENE 1
Sounds of a crowd at a cockfight. Santiago and Cheché are betting their money on cockfights. They’ve been drinking, but are not drunk. They wear typical, long-sleeve, white linen shirts (guayabera), white pants and two-tone shoes. Eliades collects the money and oversees all the operations of this place.
ELIADES: Cockfights! See the winged beauties fighting in midair! Cockfights! I’ll take five, ten, fifteen, twenty dollars on Picarubio. Five, ten, twenty on Espuela de Oro. Picarubio against Espuela de Oro. Espuela de Oro against Picarubio.
SANTIAGO: I’ll bet a hundred on Picarubio.
ELIADES: A hundred on Picarubio.
CHECHÉ: Eighty on Espuela de Oro.
ELIADES: Eighty on Espuela de Oro.
SANTIAGO: Ten more on Picarubio.
ELIADES: Ten more on Picarubio. Ten more on Espuela de Oro?
CHECHÉ: No, that’s enough.
ELIADES: I’ll take five, ten, twenty dollars. Picarubio against Espuela de Oro. Espuela de Oro against Picarubio.
(Sound of a ship approaching the harbor. Marela, Conchita and their mother Ofelia are standing by the seaport. They are holding white handkerchiefs and are waiting for a ship to arrive. )
MARELA: Is that the ship approaching in the distance?
CONCHITA: I think it is.
OFELIA: It’s the only ship that’s supposed to arrive around this time.
MARELA: Then that must be it. Oh, I’m so excited! Let me look at the picture again, Mamá.
OFELIA: How many times are you going to look at it?
MARELA: Many times. We have to make sure we know what he looks like.
CONCHITA: You just like looking at his face.
MARELA: I think he is elegant and good looking.
(Ofelia opens a letter and takes out a photograph.)
OFELIA: That he is. But what’s essential is that he has good vocal chords, deep lungs and a strong voice.
CONCHITA: What’s more important is that he has good diction when he reads.
MARELA: As long as he reads with feeling and gusto, I’m content. (Looks at the photo) Look at his face and the way he signs his name.
(Sounds of a crowd at a cockfight.)
ELIADES: We have a winner! We have a winner! Espuela de Oro is the winner! Espuela de Oro!
CHECHÉ: Winner here.
ELIADES (Counting money): Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty.
SANTIAGO: You’re a lucky man.
ELIADES: Next fight! I’ll take five, ten, fifteen, twenty dollars . . . Cuello de Jaca against Uñaroja. Uñaroja against Cuello de Jaca.
SANTIAGO: Eighty on Cuello de Jaca.
ELIADES: Eighty on Cuello de Jaca.
CHECHÉ: Eighty on Uñaroja.
ELIADES: Eighty on Uñaroja. (To the audience) Uñaroja against Cuello de Jaca! Cuello de Jaca against Uñaroja!
(Sound of a ship approaching the harbor.)
OFELIA: Don’t tell your father, but I took some money from the safe to pay for the lector’s trip.
CONCHITA: You did well, Mamá.
OFELIA
: Oh, I don’t feel a bit guilty. Doesn’t your father spend his money gambling? Then I’ll do as I wish with my money. I’ll spend my money on the best lector we can get. The gentleman who recommended him says that he is the best lector west of Havana.
MARELA: Well, I’m glad, because poor old Teodoro used to spit a little too much when he read to us. Sometimes it felt like sprinkles of rain were coming out of his mouth.
OFELIA: Marela! The poor man was eighty years old.
MARELA: That he was!
OFELIA: Have more respect—he died three months ago.
MARELA: Oh, I respect him, but let the truth be told.
OFELIA: The poor fellow, for ten years he read to us.
MARELA (With satire): Oh, I loved him . . . I loved him, like an uncle, like a grandfather. May he rest in peace! But he should’ve given up being a lector a long time ago. His heart couldn’t take the love stories. He couldn’t take the poetry and tragedy in the novels. Sometimes he had to sit down after reading a profound and romantic passage.
CONCHITA: Oh, that’s why I liked him, because I knew that he read to us with his heart.
MARELA: But it was too much. It took him three months to read the last novel to us.
OFELIA: Ah! But it was Wuthering Heights, and none of us wanted it to end, including you.
CONCHITA: Well, I hope this new lector turns out to be as good as Teodoro, because the one who replaced him didn’t last . . .
MARELA: Look, the ship is getting closer. Oh, I’m so excited, I just want him to disembark and have him here once and for all.
CONCHITA (Looking into the distance): He’s probably going to bring a lot of new books from Argentina and Spain and France, because so many ships make stops in Cuba.
(Sounds of a crowd at a cockfight.)
ELIADES: We have a winner! We have a winner! Uñaroja! Uñaroja is the winner!
CHECHÉ: Winner here. Uñaroja.
(Eliades pays Cheché, then continues announcing the next fight. )
ELIADES: Twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred . . . Twenty, forty sixty . . . Ready for the next fight! We have Colabrava against Falcón de Acero. I’ll take five, ten, fifteen, twenty dollars . . . Colabrava against Falcón de Acero . . . (Continuing his announcement)
SANTIAGO: Lend me some money, Cheché.
CHECHÉ: How much?
SANTIAGO: Two hundred.
CHECHÉ: I don’t lend any money when I’m gambling, and I don’t lend any money when I’m drinking.
SANTIAGO: Are you going to make me walk home to get more money?
CHECHÉ: Ah, just give it up!
SANTIAGO: Are you going to make me walk back to my house?
CHECHÉ: It’s not a good night for you! You’ve lost all your money.
SANTIAGO: Lend me some money, Cheché. I’ll pay you back.
CHECHÉ: You’re drunk, Santiago.
SANTIAGO: Give me some money and I’ll show you my luck. Come on, you’ve got the lucky money! With your lucky money I’ll show you what I can do.
CHECHÉ: And when are you going to pay me back?
SANTIAGO: I guarantee you that I’ll pay you back.
CHECHÉ: You got to give me your word.
SANTIAGO: I’ll give you my word. Give me a paper. I’ll sign a paper. You got paper?
CHECHÉ: No, I don’t have any paper.
SANTIAGO: Then lift up your foot.
CHECHÉ: What do you mean lift up my foot?
SANTIAGO (Grabbing Cheché’s leg): Lift up your foot, hombre!
CHECHÉ: What the hell? . . .
SANTIAGO: Let me have the sole of your shoe.
(Santiago takes out a knife.)
CHECHÉ: What are you going to do? (Lifting up his foot)
SANTIAGO: I’m signing my name on the sole of your shoe.
(Santiago carves his name on Cheché’s shoe.)
CHECHÉ: What for?
SANTIAGO: Proof. Testament that I’ll pay you back. See here: “S” for Santiago. How much are you going to lend me?
CHECHÉ: Twenty.
SANTIAGO: Twenty? Cheapskate. I’m writing a hundred.
CHECHÉ: A hundred?
SANTIAGO: A hundred. There you go.
CHECHÉ: A hundred?
SANTIAGO: A hundred. That’s what I wrote.
CHECHÉ: Are you . . . ?
SANTIAGO: I’ll pay you back. I’m your brother, for God’s sake!
(Sound of a ship approaching the harbor.)
OFELIA: There is the ship. Wave your handkerchief.
MARELA: Do you see him?
CONCHITA: All the men look the same with their hats.
OFELIA: Oh, why do I get so emotional every time I see a ship?
MARELA: Don’t get mad at me, Mamá, but I wrote the lector’s name on a piece of paper and placed it in a glass of water with brown sugar and cinnamon.
OFELIA: What for?
MARELA: Carmela, the palm reader, told me that if I sweeten his name, the reader would come our way.
OFELIA: That’s like casting a spell on him.
MARELA: It’s only sugar and cinnamon. And it worked.
OFELIA: I told you about playing with spells. It’s not right, Marela. One should never alter other people’s destiny.
MARELA: I didn’t alter his destiny. With a little sugar I sweetened his fate.
CONCHITA: That’s how witches get started—with brown sugar. Then they begin to play with fire. Look at what happened to Rosario, she put a spell on her lover and the man died. And not only did she lose her man; she’s gone to hell herself.
OFELIA (To Marela): Did you hear that?
CONCHITA: They say she couldn’t stop crying after her lover’s death. That her whole face became an ocean of tears, and the father had to take her back to Cuba, to see if she would get better. But a fever would possess the girl at night. They say she’d run to the sea naked. She’d run there to meet the dead lover.
MARELA: Now you’re making me feel awful.
(Sounds of a crowd at a cockfight.)
ELIADES: Kikiriki . . . Ready for the next fight! We have Diamante Negro against Crestafuerte . . . I’ll take five, ten, fifteen, twenty dollars . . . Diamante Negro against Crestafuerte. Crestafuerte against Diamante Negro.
SANTIAGO: Lift up your foot again.
CHECHÉ: What for?
SANTIAGO: Lift up your foot and let me see the sole of your shoe.
CHECHÉ: What for?
(Santiago carves something on the sole of Cheché’s shoe.)
SANTIAGO: I’m borrowing two hundred more.
CHECHÉ: No. You can’t. You’re jinxed tonight.
SANTIAGO: I’ll pay you back. It’s written on your shoe already. CHECHÉ: Then cross it out.
SANTIAGO: I can’t cross it out. I’ve got my totals there. If I don’t pay you, part of the factory is yours.
(Immediately Cheché takes off his shoe.)
CHECHÉ: Then write it down. Write it down. I want it in writing.
SANTIAGO: I’ll write it down. (Takes the knife and carves out his promise) There you go.
(Cheché looks at the sole of his shoe. He gives Santiago more money. )
CHECHÉ: Here. Let’s go.
SANTIAGO: Well, put on your shoe, hombre!
CHECHÉ: No, I’m not putting it on.
SANTIAGO: Why not?
CHECHÉ: Because this here is our contract, and I don’t want it erased.
SANTIAGO: And you’re going to walk with just one shoe.
CHECHÉ: Yes!
SANTIAGO: You bastard!
(Sound of a ship approaching.)
OFELIA: Well, there’s no sign of him. Let’s see if you spoiled it for us.
MARELA: Ah, don’t say that! I’m so nervous I think I’m going to pee-pee on myself.
CONCHITA: Is he that man waving his hat?
OFELIA: Is it? I can’t see very well from here.
CONCHITA: No. He’s got to be younger.
MARELA: How is he going to recognize us?
> OFELIA: I told him that I was going to wear a white hat.
MARELA: Oh Lord! There are more than fifty women with white hats.
OFELIA: But I told him that my hat would have a gardenia.
CONCHITA: Is it the man with the blue suit?
MARELA: No, too fat.
OFELIA: When you get home take his name out of that sweet water.
MARELA: Oh Lord, I feel awful. He’s nowhere to be found. I’m going home. I’m going home. I’ve ruined it. (Starts to exit)
OFELIA: Marela!
MARELA: No. I’ve ruined it.
OFELIA: Come back here. A little bit of sugar can’t do any harm.
(The lector, Juan Julian, enters. He is wearing a Panama hat and a white linen suit.)
MARELA: I don’t want to spoil it.
OFELIA: Marela, don’t be foolish.
JUAN JULIAN: Señora Ofelia?
OFELIA (Turning to look): Yes . . .
JUAN JULIAN: The gardenia on your hat, am I correct? Señora Ofelia.
(Juan Julian takes off his hat.)
OFELIA (Dumbstruck): Oh!
CONCHITA: Say yes, Mamá!
OFELIA: Ah, yes! I’m Ofelia.
JUAN JULIAN: Juan Julian Rios, at your service!
OFELIA: Ah! Ofelia . . . Ofelia Alcalar. What an honor!
(We hear Marela pee on herself from nervousness. There is an awkward pause. All of them notice.)
(Dissimulating) Oh! Do you have everything, Señor Juan Julian? Do you have your luggage?
JUAN JULIAN: I’ll have to tell the steward that I found you.
OFELIA: Go find him . . . We’ll wait here.
(Juan Julian runs off.)
Anna in the Tropics