El eslabón perdido

A monologue based on a novel by Luisa Carnés about exile, memory and identity, directed by César Barló and performed by Joaquín Notario as César Alcántara.

The play adapts a novel by Madrid-born writer Luisa Carnés, completed shortly before her death and unpublished for almost four decades. César Barló directs and adapts this poetic and deeply human monologue. Its protagonist, César Alcántara, is a doctor of Philosophy and Literature who arrived in Mexico after the military uprising that led to the civil war, and he lives suspended between the Spain that no longer exists and a Mexico that never quite feels like home.

Carnés focuses more on private life than on major historical events: the protagonist struggles against the physical, emotional and intellectual loneliness that exile brings, while the passing of time blurs his memories and distances his children from the homeland, as they only know Mexico. The play asks to what extent a person can endure when they are left without a place of their own in the world.

The cast includes Joaquín Notario, who plays César Alcántara. Juan Sebastián Domínguez is responsible for the set design, Karmen Abarca for the costumes, Sergio Bascuñana for the sound design, Bruno Rascão for the video design and Xavi Vila for the movement. The production is by Teatro Español and Mediatea Teatro, and the piece is staged in the Sala Margarita Xirgu of the Teatro Español, whose programming focuses mainly on contemporary theatre.