Melding flavorful monologues, hard U.S. currency, a touch of Orisha worship, and of course, music, TropiCola offers a provocative glimpse of what it means to be Cuban. A challenging media artist, San Diego-based Steve Fagin creates works that are by turns essayistic, dramatic, and curiously original. For this simmering portrait of present-day Cuba, he enlisted a cast of veteran Cuban actors who improvise their roles in a steamy telenovela rife with philosophical musings. Expressed along a rhythm-line that is definitely salsa, TropiCola portrays the passions and vexations of everyday life in Havana, from the hustle for dollars to the pressing question of emigration. If there is a common idea linking the characters of Fagin's hothouse hybrid, it is the daily struggle to reconcile their political convictions with their private needs. As the central actress, played with sensual sureness by Adria Santana, wryly says of today's Cuba, "The script is good. What satisfies less each day is the staging." Shot in Havana, TropiCola doesn't pass judgment on Castro's Cuba, rather, it offers a panoramic view of this controversial nation, countering the U.S. embargo on clarity and understanding.-Steve Seid