Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
THE STORY: ANNA IN THE TROPICS is a poignant and poetic play set in Florida in 1929 in a Cuban–American cigar factory, where cigars are still rolled by hand and “lectors” are employed to educate and entertain the workers. The arrival of a new lector is a cause for celebration, but when he begins to read aloud from Anna Karenina, he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropics, and the American dream prove a volatile combination.
“The words of Nilo Cruz waft from a stage like a scented breeze. They sparkle and prickle and swirl, enveloping those who listen in both a specific place and time—and in timeless passions that touch us all…In ANNA IN THE TROPICS, Cruz claims his place as a storyteller of intricate craftsmanship and poetic power…[Cruz] has turned out many wonderful plays—but none more shimmeringly beautiful than ANNA IN THE TROPICS.” —Miami Herald.
“In evoking the lost Cuban–American world of a Florida cigar factory in 1929, Mr. Cruz has created a work as wistful and affectingly ambitious as its characters. ANNA IN THE TROPIC reaches for the artistic heavens…” —The New York Times.
“…enticing and exotic…entrancingly lovely…” —Variety.
