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Anna in the Tropics
Oct. 30th, 2004 09:16 pmi used the first ticket of my Seattle Rep subscription Thursday. ( C says i'm making out like a bandit this year - the Rep, 3 operas, Seattle Shakes with cabarets, and the end of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
frabjousdave's ACT tickets. so is he, since the Rep is the only one that's just me.) the first show is a Pulitzer Prize winner, Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, directed by Sharon Ott.
the story is set in a Tampa cigar factory in 1929, the waning days of the handmade cigar. in these unmechanized factories, where the work was pretty quiet, the workers would contribute a part to their income to hire a lectore, a professional reader, to keep them informed and entertained throughout the day. supposedly while the typical cigar worker couldn't read, they could quote Cervantes and Shakespeare. the day would traditionally end with a reading from a novel. in our play, a new (of course young and handsome) lectore arrives from Havana, and chooses to read Anna Karenina. mayhem ensues.
(so C is sitting nearby at the paint table working on miniatures, wearing his iPod, and periodically bursting out into song. it's silly and distracting and i find it quite charming so i'm trying to concentrate and not draw attention so that he doesn't get self-conscious. it's fucking hard to do.)
the text of the play is gorgeous. the writing is literate, funny, sexy, true. well, in an elevated sense. few of us would be quite so articulate in the moment. but there's an atmosphere of possibility and magic in the steamy air that makes it want to play like life, but better. the problem is that this production never quite hit it. the cast, according to the program, came from far and wide, so i have to believe that the restraint that i felt came from the direction. it was well researched, designed, and staged, but there was something detached in the acting, and it was throughout the cast. i have to believe that a style choice was made, and i feel that the restraint was wrong.
so was the cigar-smoke blue floor.
still, an excellent piece, and should be seen for the potential - the play i imagined i might have seen took my breath away.
frabjousdave's ACT tickets. so is he, since the Rep is the only one that's just me.) the first show is a Pulitzer Prize winner, Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, directed by Sharon Ott. the story is set in a Tampa cigar factory in 1929, the waning days of the handmade cigar. in these unmechanized factories, where the work was pretty quiet, the workers would contribute a part to their income to hire a lectore, a professional reader, to keep them informed and entertained throughout the day. supposedly while the typical cigar worker couldn't read, they could quote Cervantes and Shakespeare. the day would traditionally end with a reading from a novel. in our play, a new (of course young and handsome) lectore arrives from Havana, and chooses to read Anna Karenina. mayhem ensues.
(so C is sitting nearby at the paint table working on miniatures, wearing his iPod, and periodically bursting out into song. it's silly and distracting and i find it quite charming so i'm trying to concentrate and not draw attention so that he doesn't get self-conscious. it's fucking hard to do.)
the text of the play is gorgeous. the writing is literate, funny, sexy, true. well, in an elevated sense. few of us would be quite so articulate in the moment. but there's an atmosphere of possibility and magic in the steamy air that makes it want to play like life, but better. the problem is that this production never quite hit it. the cast, according to the program, came from far and wide, so i have to believe that the restraint that i felt came from the direction. it was well researched, designed, and staged, but there was something detached in the acting, and it was throughout the cast. i have to believe that a style choice was made, and i feel that the restraint was wrong.
so was the cigar-smoke blue floor.
still, an excellent piece, and should be seen for the potential - the play i imagined i might have seen took my breath away.
