Flies on Marble
2024
Truth and Mystery
The writing of Luis Alberto Heiremans is one of the most valuable materials our national dramaturgy possesses. His work contains a unique poetics, in which various human realities of our country are sharply revealed, portrayed by characters who experience identities and traits belonging to different groups of Chilean society.
“Flies on Marble” is a turning point in his creation, where he develops a story that transitions from melodrama to psychological theater without neglecting poetic and philosophical traces. This work has accompanied me for a long time; I have read and reread it at different moments in my life, and it has always awakened in me a sense of truth and mystery, providing me a space for reflection on the human condition and the need we have to cling to something in life.
In this version, we have tried to construct a scenic narrative that contains the tension between one reality and a new possible reality. Julian in the first scene decrees something very significant: “Everything is a stage,” and later asserts, “Of course, I don’t believe, and no one believes, but we enjoy pretending we believe.” Both phrases allow for the articulation of a scenic premise where two worlds confront each other: the exterior, the “bucolic” party, and the interior, the abandoned stable. Both worlds seem to be a metaphor for how we attempt to create our own existence as human beings.
Between truth and mystery, in this staging, Heiremans’ characters come to visit us to deliver a failed portrait of love through a story full of misunderstanding and loneliness with a desolate ending.
Flies on Marble is a psychological drama, one of the most important works by the Chilean author Luis Alberto Heiremans, written in 1958 and premiered in Germany in 1961. The action takes place on an estate belonging to a wealthy and traditional Chilean family, in an abandoned stable that was once a chapel. Julián, the protagonist of the play, organizes and hosts a party in honor of his childhood friend Enrique, whom he hasn’t seen for over 10 years. This encounter will swiftly awaken the past, causing Julián to enter a state of exaltation that will lead him to confront his possessive mother Amalia, his religious and faithful wife Teresa, and his friend Enrique, who has found himself involved in a party where he is forced to participate in a strange game, “the hunt for a ghost.” Heiremans addresses with insight in this work themes of loneliness, the inability to love, the crisis of faith, existential emptiness, and the subjectivity of affections.
CAST: Paulina García / Jorge Arecheta / Antonia Santa María / Nicolás Pavez / Felipe Zepeda
Playwright: Luis Alberto Heiremans
Set and Lighting Design: Rodrigo Ruíz
Costume Design: Andrea Carolina Contreras
Musical Composition: Niña Tormenta
Sound Design: Marcos Salazar
Assistant Director: Pascale Zelaya
Production Assistant: Francisca Moreno
Set and Props Assistant: Viviana Araya
General Production: Antonia Santa María
Director: Álvaro Viguera