Many still remember with nostalgia the great production of La Celestina directed by Carlos Díaz for the company Teatro El Público two decades ago. The performances at Trianon Theater were always soldouts. In a performance that some considered scandalous, Díaz offered his vision of the Fernando de Rojas classic. And not a few critics agreed that he honored the spirit of the original text.

Now the renowned Cuban stage director and his company resume the famous story, in a show produced by FUNDarte, in association with the Ibero-American Festival of the Golden Age of the Community of Madrid.

It’s a show based on the new version of the playwright Norge Espinosa on the text by Fernando de Rojas, which will be presented on July 1^st and 2^nd at 7:00 p.m. at the Corral de Comedias of Alcalá de Henares, as the closing of the Clásicos festival in Alcalá.

In a press release by the company and FUNDarte, it’s said that Rojas's text is a mirror of a Spain where the pure love of young people is stalked by the interests and repressions of the time, but endures as a celebration of joy and a provocation that its characters make recognizable in the present.

"Struggle between desire and flesh, morality and money, reality and sorcery, the fable of the old matchmaker reminds us that those forces are still in conflict and that we’re still part of that battle, even in the era of virtuality. And that Celestina, skilled in her tricks as a witch and businesswoman, still walks among us," the statement added.

And further on he points out that eroticism, sensuality, and the political subtext - featuresof maestro Carlos Díaz - emerge in communion with Afro-Cuban folklore and the Iberian tradition seen from the other shore.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff