Vital Forces

As he did with A Park in Our House, Ambush composes unforgettable visual images. When the refugees are still in Havana, Inez declares her love for Pepe, and the pair put pillowcases on their heads as though donning wedding clothes. "We'll start a new life," she says. The two then use their fingers to explore each other's faces through the fabric, as though the material bore a unique landscape of Braille. In Act Two, with help from lighting designer Jim Fulton and set designer Kent Goetz, the director transforms an interior space into a timeless limbo that indeed seems to be located in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Goetz projects Cruz's supertitles for different sections of the play -- tierra, fuego, agua, aire -- onto the set's backdrop, a screen depicting the sky, which changes color with the time of day or night. The titles are nearly gratuitous, however. The inherent notion is already carried by the stark fable of three humans battling the four eternal elements.

Ambush gets masterful and delicate performances out of his actors. Cruz and Riba are strong, but the play belongs to Miranda. A childlike woman in Act One (I wondered at first if Ambush had made a mistake by having her seem so insubstantial) she emerges as a life force in Act Two. Nilo Cruz, too, is emerging as a vital force in the American theater. It's too limiting to label him a Cuban-American writer, but the truth is that he is the rare playwright taking on the themes of his generation of Cuban exiles who grew up in the United States. As I commented on the occasion of the production of A Park in Our House, it's wonderful that Florida Stage has sought out his work. What's less admirable is that no one in Miami-Dade County has yet been willing to bring Cruz's plays here, possibly because he doesn't take a position on specific Cuban political issues. What Cruz has to say, however, is so much more than a mere anti-Castro screed. Don't let another year go by without embracing this gifted hometown voice.

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Stage Whispers: For the second year in a row, the Theatre League of South Florida is presenting its Winter Stages of the Sun program, which allows residents and visitors to buy discounted theater tickets at almost every theater in South Florida. To participate, pick up a "passport" at participating theaters or local hotels, restaurants, and other venues, and present it at the box office to receive half-price tickets (subject to availability). To find out which theaters are participating in Winter Stages, call 305-682-9682. Then go out and fill up those seats.