A Bicycle Country
By Nilo Cruz
Directed by Santos Ventura
With Dean Davis, Tanya Davis, and Pete Garvey

Set in the early 1990's in Cuba, A Bicycle Country is a lyrical, powerful, and eccentric journey. Julio is recovering from a stroke, aided by his caregiver Ines and friend Pepe. Julio's payment to Ines for her care giving is a raft, on which the three will embark for America. This stirring portrait of three Cuban exiles and their harrowing journey across the Caribbean Sea examines the universal themes of freedom and oppression, hope and survival.

Director's Notes

For most of us, our knowledge of Cuba is limited to the headlines – Castro speaking out against the U.S. government, Elian Gonzales, trade embargos, travel restrictions, and so on. Very rarely do we get a glimpse of what it has been like to live in Cuba, as a member of its society.

A Bicycle Country author Nilo Cruz introduces the audience to three Cubans – Ines, Julio and Pepe – who can see the shortcomings of their system of government, and decide to risk everything for a change. Although they are fictional characters, the reality of their situation is faced every day by our fellow human beings in Cuba and other places around the world.

This play challenges the audience to look at the world through the eyes of its characters, and asks what one would be willing to sacrifice in order to fix a broken way of life. In the end, as with all risks and sacrifices, we ask, “Was it worth it?”

Notes from the Artistic Director

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1985, the Cuban economy was headed for disaster. Having been dependent upon Soviet trade and economic aid, the Cuban people endured el período especial from 1991 to 1994: rations of food and supplies were scarce, utilities faltered, and a nation accustomed to automotive convenience took to the streets on bicycles. Seeking an end to their desperation, masses of Cubans braved the open sea on homemade rafts, taking their chances amidst sharks, hostile vessels, and the threat of death by dehydration, in pursuit of Florida's shores.

Such is the world of Nilo Cruz's historical fiction A Bicycle Country, presented by Dignity Players for our annual summer production in a year, in which our plays deal with the effects of military and ideological conflict on individuals and societies. Though a knowledge of fiscal models, trade relations, and the fall of European Communism is not essential to appreciate Cruz's play, this context allows the play to expand into a melancholic meditation on the loss of cultural identity.

The first act of A Bicycle County represents, in many respects, a kaleidoscopic view of Cuban culture circa 1993: the characters sing, dance, and tell tales of other times. However, they are also universally human: they drink, they lust, and they hope for something better. The decision to leave Cuba is all but made for them (necessity being the mother of exodus), though their departure requires the stripping of almost all ties to history and heritage; they must abandon their homes, their lives, and the artifacts that have lived with them and tell their stories. When Act Two finds the trio adrift in an endless sea, removed from all civilization, Cruz's metaphor strikes home; "Our night is almost coming to an end—like everything else," intones one character in a haunting moment. For theatre audiences circa 2009, who feel the ravages of an economy that continues to unravel while standards of living plummet and the employment rate nationwide spills over the 10% flood lines, A Bicycle Country's tale of balseros (rafters) in search of dry land should resonate with urgency.