I first saw Rafael Alvarez about 2 years after I moved to Madrid in 2007. He was performing at the Teatro Isabel   in a play called ¨El Contrabajo¨ or Double Bass in English. At the time, I must admit that I didn’t speak nor understand much Spanish not to mention, any notion of  literature by the German author and screenwriter Patrick Süskind. Patrick Süskind´s writing  is described in Wikipedia as magic realism, and I could not have said it better myself, especially having now seen the play ¨El Contrabajo¨ and the film  Perfume. The Story of a murder.  Now, back to Rafael  Alvarez´s play at the Teatro Cofidis of Calle Alcala 20:The play is a called ¨El Comico¨ and it was conceived by this Cordobean actor as a challenge and experiment from his long experience in theatre to incite humour, hysteria, reflection and break down classic literature and poetry into easy fun story telling!

 From the description of the play, perhaps you would not be clear of what exactly to expect…and that’s perhaps the beauty of this play. As Rafael said himself, at the end of the play, every week of the performance he will experiment with a variety of reflections and dialogues and the audience has the liberty and pleasure to become part of a fresh performance everytime. Highlights of the play for me, were anecdotes from his previous performances, from his native Andalucia, his stay at the Monastery of Silos ,his enactment of colloquialism and popular language and of course his impressions of Don Francisco Quevedo.

All in all I loved the play. I recommend  totally, but note that you have to be fluent in Spanish and know many cultural nuances and street colloquialism.Viva el Brujo!