The evening unfolds as Rafael Alvarez guides a rare encounter with myth and myth-making. The Witcher and the gods meet on a Murcia stage this Friday in a show described as an unusual spectacle, a conversation about how people cling to ancient stories while peering into the void. The performance nods to a classic of Plautus with echoes of a distant Greek tragedy, a tale of divine mischief and mortal longing refracted through contemporary sensibilities. Jupiter, smitten with Alcmene, once borrowed the likeness of her absent husband to draw near and commerce with love. The piece uses that centuries-old deception to reflect on the temptations of power and the fragility of truth when projection replaces presence.
The Cordovan actor at the heart of the work threads his personal artistic history into a larger tapestry. The performance moves fluidly from topic to topic—nature, literature, reading, the power of words—and it mirrors the artist’s long career of experimentation. Figures such as Host and Mercury, along with Jupiter and Sosias, weave through the dialogue, while references to the present moment and even public health figures surface as a sly commentary on how information travels. The performer presents language as the most potent tool of creation, a living force that births what the mind desires and the heart already feels. Against a noisy modern world filled with aggression and excess information, the piece claims the word can quiet the surrounding clamor and offer clarity.
In dialogue, the work is framed as a meditation on the Mediterranean circle of friends and stories, a chorus of shared myths retold for today. The ensemble makes clear that the piece rests on a foundation drawn from Plautus and a lineage that reaches back to ancient Greek tragedy. Yet the intent remains modern and urgent, a reconstruction that asks what these old tales can still teach about courage, desire, and the human longing for meaning. The story of Heracles and the birth myths find new life here, distilled through a contemporary lens, inviting the audience to see how an ancient joke can illuminate a modern question.
When asked what compels him to select a story and claim it as his own, the artist speaks from years of study and performance. He describes a habit of drawing from Santa Teresa, from Greek drama, from Spanish classics, and from a shared obsession with the transcendent meaning of existence. The aim is not to settle on a simple answer. Instead, it is to explore how life is lived, what counts as purpose, and how individuals grasp the hidden message of their days. For many, life might be measured by work, leisure, family, politics, and daily rituals. Yet beneath those outward forms lies a deeper question: what is the ultimate significance of existence, and what message should art deliver to help people navigate their own journeys?
Responding to this central inquiry, the artist notes that the great debates of the classics resist dogmatic closure. The Church may propose certainties, and politicians may offer slogans, but true understanding comes from each person’s own search. The classics present a grand challenge and an adventurous invitation: to decipher life’s riddles and to listen for a wisdom that travels across time. The goal is to empower audiences to interpret what they witness and apply it to their own experiences, rather than to passively receive a fixed doctrine. The theatre thus becomes a forum for personal reflection and collective insight, where timeless texts are tested against the questions of a contemporary world.
Audience reception is an open field. The performer believes that many people do not know the classics intimately, but after the show they leave with a distilled sense of the core ideas, the essence of a work, and its relevance to different moments and cultures. The comic and the tragic are brought into dialogue, offering a condensed map of culture that can be applied beyond the stage. The aim is not to lecture but to illuminate how classical thought speaks to present concerns, challenging assumptions while inviting curious minds to examine their own beliefs. In this light, even political figures might discover that culture has its own kind of currency that politics cannot easily counterfeit.
From a practical vantage point, the artist explains the preference for solo performance as a disciplined choice born of necessity. If large groups demand strict schedules and shared rhythms, the solitary form allows more immediate control over pacing, interpretation, and emotional resonance. A monologue becomes a laboratory where ideas are tested, reworked, and intensified. What began with a single project grew into a broader method: the practice of speaking one voice with the weight of many centuries behind it, shaping a unique, intimate exchange with the audience.
Finally, the question of meditation returns as a guiding thread. The work concerns a worldview, a frame for life that includes reflective practices rather than prescriptive techniques. It invites audiences to pause, observe, and consider their place within a larger human story. The art highlights how contemplation can anchor even in a world of noise, a steadying influence that allows truth and emotion to emerge with greater clarity. In this light, the show is less about delivering fixed answers and more about offering a space for listening, wondering, and imagining what those ancient voices can still tell us about being alive today.