The Night of the Iguana

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussions of sexual misconduct and statutory rape.

The play is set in the summer of 1940 at the Costa Verde, a rustic beachside hotel in coastal Mexico. The owner, Mrs. Maxine Faulk, is in her mid-40s. She enters with her Mexican employee, Pedro, who is in his early 20s. Both are rebuttoning their clothes after a tryst. A tour bus has arrived, and Maxine happily greets its guide, Lawrence Shannon, who is a regular guest at the hotel. As he makes his way up the jungle-covered hill, Maxine sends Pedro and another worker, Pancho, to carry his bags. Shannon has a high fever and calls several times for Maxine’s husband, Fred, but Maxine casually reveals that Fred died suddenly two weeks ago from a blood infection caused by a minor cut. Seemingly unbothered by her husband’s death, Maxine comments that Fred was older and their sex life had waned. Maxine invites Shannon to relax in the hammock and drink a rum-coco, but Shannon will only accept a beer. From the base of the hill, Shannon’s touring guests, an all-women group of Baptist teachers from Texas, are furiously honking the horn.