Nilo Cruz

This book was my introduction to the idea of a "lector"--someone who was paid to be in a cigar factory as a reader, spending days reading works of literature to factory workers. The beauty and the worth of the idea coming into clash with machinery and new technology is enough to be found fascinating to begin with (in my eyes), but Cruz combines this historical moment with drama and frighteningly realistic character (along with great writing) to make a memorable and heartbreaking play. The show more integration of Anna Karenina into the text brings another level to the text, as well, whether you've read Tolstoy or not. In the end, simply, the text comes to life in various ways. My instinct is to say that this is why we read, and that this is why we write, put simply and beautifully into words. This is worth reading, worth remembering, worth passing on. show less

A new lector comes to a cigar factory in Tampa in 1929 and upends the status quo as he reads Anna Karenina to the workers as they make cigars. Cruz's language flows magically. A beautiful, tragic story.

I enjoyed several aspects of this play. The playwright illuminates a world that is worth discovering: the world of cigar factory workers and the "lectors" that read literature to them in 1920s Florida. A few of the conflicts that arose were genuinely interesting, like the conflict and resolution between Santiago and his wife, Ofelia.

As an actress, I would be irritated by the way women are represented in this play. A woman in her twenties pees her pants onstage, with relatively little show more relevance to the plot. There is onstage sex, onstage initiation of sexual assault, and many plot points that revolve around men being jealous of/about women. Female characters are depicted as stereotypes (the long-suffering wife, the bitter wife, the young ingenue). They have some more fleshing out than many plays, but I still got the sense that there was something deeply inauthentic about the way the playwright wrote these women.

I also did not believe the resolution of the play. Something very intense happens, and the characters seemingly move on as if nothing occurred. show less

I've seen this play performed, in an abridged one hour version, once before. I hated it, and now I know why.

This play is beautifully written, and should never be performed except in its entirety. The characters of Juan Julian, Cheche, Conchita, and Marela, among others, are too rich to pare down. I put off reading this one for a long time, but I highly recommend it to others. A great play.