Iconos o la exploración del destino

9th International Classic Theater Festival of Alicante

Somewhere in early 17th-century Spain, a troupe of traditional comedians, a ñaque (a group of actors) made up of a male comedian and a female player of various instruments and paraphernalia, are preparing to perform the never-before-seen comedy about the eventful adventures of Onofre Caballero, known as a “guitón” (a scoundrel), which is the same as saying a rogue, a scoundrel, or a scoundrel. His life has remained hidden in a book that they will dust off and open at the beginning of the performance, for he is a lost character among others of greater renown, belonging to the same picaresque and itinerant life, plagued by accidents and marked by hunger and the vicissitudes of the supposedly Golden Age. Thus, the comedian, while constructing before the spectators the stage set depicting the places Onofre traveled, will unravel and act out the various episodes that marked the guitón’s life, from his childhood orphanage and the mistreatment of a nobleman to his unexpected entry into a religious order and his literal ascension to the altars. Between both extremes, the troupe, a “ñaque,” traverses, reliving with intensity, effort, great humor, and emotion each of the main events that befell Onofre: the masters who mistreated and starved him, the characters along the way who swindled him, the failure of his social advancement or his plans for revenge, the violence, the humiliations, the final loneliness, and the apparent triumphs. The few happy days and the many dark ones. Trials that will lead him, in short, to a career of resentment and continual deceit. And the impossibility of erasing an original stigma that a childhood fall into a fire left on his face, and which will prove to be the signature of an unfortunate fate. After the performance, the company dismantles the stage machinery and invites the audience to reflect on what and whom the comedy reflects. And in whom Onofre sees the script.