Come back this weekend the annunciation to the room of The Enchanted Deer. with the work or performance scenic happens as with the angels, that many speak of them but few have seen them.
The piece premiered on November 21, 2020 in the midst of the pandemic crisis and a few days after the events of 27N. Due to the restrictions imposed by the health alarm, its functions were limited. This time it will be available to the public during all the weekends in February, from Friday to Sunday; or what is the same, the season will have twelve presentations.
The title chosen by Nelda Castillo —main director of the group and, on this occasion, also actress, artistic director and co-author of the text— refers us to the Bible and Antonia Eiriz’s homonymous pictorial work.
According to the sacred scriptures, the Archangel Gabriel manifests himself to who would be the Virgin Mary to inform her that she has been chosen to conceive the son of God. In Eiriz’s painting (1964, 190.5 x 243 cm), on the contrary, a crowned angel appears to a humble pregnant seamstress, and delivers a fateful message: her pregnancy will not end happily, will have to abort.
In any case, the angel is the emissary of a superior, ineluctable power, which must be listened to and, without excuse, obeyed. The lack of electiveness before the designs that come “from above” (never better used the phrase) leads us to assume as our own the much-quoted verse by Rainer María Rilke: “Every angel is terrible.”
Nelda founded El Ciervo Encantado in 1996. Since then, the search, both dramaturgical and anthropological, has been focused on revealing the memory of the body, that genetic information that we carry and makes us collectively be in one way and not another, understand at a level visceral belonging to something that surpasses us and escapes when “it had already reached its best definition”.
They are memorable works within the company’s repertoire Visions of Cubanosophy, Zone of Silence, Rhapsody for a Mule, Departures and Arrivals, Wow Melon! Your melon!Latest and Mifflin’s equation. With diverse aesthetics, basically focused on the work of the actor in a context that is most often minimalist, the pieces have as a common factor their vocation to question the specific reality of the country, seeking the universal in the particular, participating, with passion and efficiency, in the debate of ideas, without a pamphlet, building powerful artistic images.
From above, the sinister angel played by Nelda delivers a warning speech. The words come chewed out of his mouth. At times she plays the good cop and the bad cop from classic interrogations. In the end, she asks for confession and repentance. All of this speaks of original sin and the lack of inclusive thought that gives space to polyphonic discourse and the construction of truth from below, based on the study and constant questioning of essences. It is not possible to act on reality, to revolutionize it, if it is not accepted beforehand and is put on the line.
If El Ciervo’s assumptions are not political, his action on stage is, to the extent that everything he projects concerns the polis, in the understanding that we are all the State, or, at least, we should be. For this reason, each work is preceded by arduous research work. The Deer scrutinizes the country, but first scrutinizes himself.
In addition to Nelda, Ricardo Sarmiento and Mariela Brito participated in the preparation of the text, who provides directing assistance.
El Ciervo has a devoted audience that knows how to read his proposals. Perhaps the uninformed viewer will have a hard time tuning in with The Annunciation. But it’s worth the effort. Seeing and listening to Nelda is quite an experience. Also, there is always a first time and this, I am sure, will be a more than memorable occasion.
