Esperanza is a blind woman that lives alone in a secluded house in the Cuban countryside. Mario is a criminal go-getter that is running away from the police after a robbery in a nearby village. When Mario breaks into Esperanza’s house to hide, he will show his sexual interest for her. She will try to swerve Mario’s attention through her tales. Because Esperanza writes tales, tales of common folk that she deems worthy of remembering. Thus, like a modern Sherezade, Esperanza chooses three stories to be told to Mario before giving herself to him. These three stories, narrated in a flashback, take place during three determining moments of Cuba’s recent history. The seventies, when the Revolution is at its peak. The student struggle against Batista’s dictatorship in the late fifties. And the War of Independence at the end of the nineteenth century. The characters in the tales bear the ideas in each of the periods but cannot avoid listening to what their hearts have to tell them: desires that are against what the society of their times wants from them. Behind the mask that imposes duty and reason hides the reality of passion and love. Back to our current times, Esperanza and Mario too hide behind their masks.

Miami: Playing now at MDC Tower Theater.