Esencia

Two old friends meet again after many years. Pierre and Cecil talk, reminisce, argue, while their dialogue is threaded with the expectation of a mysterious author who will never arrive. Or has he, perhaps, been present from the very beginning? In this suspended space, reality falters and becomes elusive, turning the encounter into a labyrinth of perceptions that invites the audience to question their own certainties.

Esencia is one of Ignacio García May’s most enigmatic works and, beginning with its very title, it stands as a true poetic manifesto. The text reflects on reality—or realities—and on the importance of language, too often overlooked, possessing that rare quality, found only in great works, of transporting and transforming those who behold it.

“When one encounters a text like this,” remarks director Eduardo Vasco, “there is nothing to do but yield to the urgent need to bring it to the stage. It represents us, while at the same time raising fundamental and unsettling questions, and it does so with intelligence, without resorting to dogma or the usual easy formulas. Bringing together two actors as extraordinary and passionate as Juan Echanove and Joaquín Climent completes the circle. Together with the rest of the company, they will undoubtedly work from that original calling, from that essence, precisely, which years ago – each in our own singular way – led us to become people of the theatre.”