By Coral Gables Gazette staff

GableStage Theatre Company presents Sotto Voce, a lyrical and haunting drama written and directed by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Nilo Cruz. Running Friday, Jan. 23 through Feb. 15 at the Wolfson Family Theatre in the historic Biltmore Hotel, the production marks the first full English-language staging of the play in Miami—an event that carries both artistic and historical weight.

First presented in New York in 2014 and later seen briefly in Miami in a limited bilingual run, Sotto Voce returns in a form that allows its language, silences, and emotional undercurrents to resonate fully with contemporary audiences. The play drifts between past and present, weaving a story that reflects on memory, loss, and the long echo of a single moral failure.

Inspired by the shadow of the MS St. Louis

While Sotto Voce is not a literal retelling, it is inspired by the true story of the MS St. Louis, the ship that carried 937 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939, only to be turned away by Cuba, the United States, and Canada. Cruz uses that historical rupture as a point of departure, examining not the event itself but the emotional aftershocks it leaves behind—what is remembered, what is silenced, and what refuses to disappear.

That approach aligns with Cruz’s body of work, which often explores history through intimacy rather than spectacle. Here, the tragedy of the St. Louis becomes a quiet gravitational force shaping lives across decades and continents.

A cross-generational encounter

At the center of the play is Saquiel Rafaeli, a young Jewish-Cuban researcher whose obsession with the St. Louis leads him to Bernadette Kahn, a reclusive, German-born novelist living with memories she has never fully spoken aloud. As a young woman in Hamburg, Bernadette watched her first love, Ariel Strauss, and his sister Nina board the doomed ship.

Through emails and phone calls—shared sotto voce, or “under the breath”—Saquiel and Bernadette form an intimate, cross-generational bond. Their conversations revive suppressed memories and reveal how personal longing and historical trauma intertwine, often in silence rather than speech.

A cast rooted in South Florida theatre

The production features a cast deeply familiar to South Florida audiences. Sara Morsey and Gabriell Salgado return to GableStage, bringing with them a shared history with Cruz’s work and its emotional terrain. They are joined by Cuban actress Claudia Tomás, who makes her GableStage debut as Lucila Pulpo, Bernadette’s companion and caretaker.

Salgado and Tomás also step into the past, portraying Nina and Ariel Strauss, collapsing time onstage and reinforcing the play’s central idea: history does not recede; it coexists with the present.

Cruz returns as director

Cruz’s decision to direct the production himself adds another layer of resonance. Since winning the Pulitzer Prize for Anna in the Tropics in 2003, he has built an acclaimed career spanning theatre and opera, with works presented nationally and internationally. His recent and upcoming projects include major opera librettos and productions at leading institutions, reinforcing his stature as one of the most significant voices in contemporary American theatre.

At GableStage, Cruz brings that experience to bear on a work that feels both intimate and urgent, shaped by restraint rather than rhetoric.

Why Sotto Voce speaks now

Producing Artistic Director Bari Newport has described Sotto Voce as the only play she knows that gives sustained voice to this shared chapter of Jewish and Cuban history, noting its ability to illuminate legacy, identity, and belonging through poetic language rather than historical reenactment.

In a moment when questions of refuge, borders, and moral responsibility remain unresolved, the play’s focus on aftermath rather than action feels deliberate. Sotto Voce asks audiences not only what happened, but what happens after—when silence becomes inheritance.

Beyond the stage: Conversations and context

GableStage surrounds the production with a robust slate of community programming designed to deepen engagement. Pre-show talks, post-show discussions, and partnerships with organizations such as Mosaic Miami extend the play’s themes beyond the performance itself. Special events explore love, memory, exile, and historical reckoning, reinforcing the theatre’s role as a civic space as much as an artistic one.

Student matinees, rush programs, and free tickets for educators further underscore the company’s commitment to access and dialogue.

Event details

• What: Sotto Voce by Nilo Cruz
• Where: Wolfson Family Theatre at GableStage, Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables
• When: Friday, Jan. 23 – Feb. 15
  • Wed–Sat at 7:30 p.m.
  • Wed & Sun matinees at 2 p.m.
  • Additional matinee Sat., Feb. 14
• Tickets: Single tickets from $50; discounts available