El Brujo - El Lazarillo de Tormes

Rafael Álvarez, known as El Brujo, plays the rogue at the heart of El Lazarillo de Tormes at the Teatro Apolo in Barcelona, in a comedy about hunger and childhood.

Rafael Álvarez, El Brujo, brings to life at the Teatro Apolo in Barcelona the rogue of El Lazarillo de Tormes, one of the most recognisable characters in Spanish literature. The production is a comedy in which the performer takes on the voice and body of this fictional character, a boy who accompanies a blind man and learns to survive in a world of want.

The play deals with marginalisation, hunger and the harshness of childhood, and draws parallels with the situation of children in Third World countries who suffer extreme deprivation. Faced with pain, the character sets irony and learning against it, and turns necessity into a form of wisdom. The story is set in an era of great distance between the Court and real life, and presents ambition and power as questions that remain relevant today.

The production links these inequalities to a lack of awareness of the value of life, and turns the figure of a literary character into a reflection on the world today. It is a show designed for those looking for a comedy centred on the word and on the performance of a classic of the picaresque.