Las apariciones - Centro Dramático Nacional

Las apariciones

Written by Fernando Delgado-Hierro Directed by Juan Ceacero

9 MAY – 15 JUN 2025 Tuesday to Sunday at 18:00 | Duration approx. 1h and 40 min.

Meeting with the artistic team: 20 MAY 2025

María Guerrero Theatre | Sala de la Princesa

TEAM

Text

Fernando Delgado-Hierro

Directing

Juan Ceacero

Cast

Pablo Chaves and Fernando Delgado-Hierro

Set design

Pablo Chavez

Lighting

Rodrigo Ortega

Artistic team

TBC

Producer

Centro Dramático Nacional and La Compañía exlímite

About the show

Las apariciones is future self-fiction. A piece that wonders about what is to come. And about the ability of the bodies on stage to make the present real. Two childhood friends, Fernando and Pablo, who grew up in the same neighbourhood and now find themselves at that junction that is midlife, wonder where the future will take them, if they will avoid repeating the cycles that define us, if the daughter will remind us of the mother, if our elderly body will display expressions like those of our grandparents, if the apple falls far from the tree.

This is a journey that runs the gamut from “where we come from” to “where we are going,” i.e., from one neighborhood to another. And that unveils all the questions, fears and desires of that path towards our inevitable destiny. We’re going to die, and in this show, there will be death in abundance. Will I be able to find out who I am before this ends?


Writer’s note

Asking a play to show us the future is perhaps asking too much of it. It is almost childlike in its faith, a blind belief in the fertility of this theatrical craft to conceive mysteries.

The attempt, even so, is a serious one. We stand in front of the public and try, with all our strength, to conjure the impossible. The attempt raises disturbing questions: Why do I have such a tendency to imagine sad futures for myself? Why does misfortune seem more interesting? The habit of fiction crosses that of biography and we can barely tell them apart. How far will I get, how much am I willing to sacrifice at the altar of theatre?

At least there is hope while the game goes on: laughter has a ritual power to bring things back to life. And since we were young, what made Paul and me friends is that we laughed, even at our own shadow.

This will be another cornerstone of the play, that of the friend as a witness to life, as that constant that acts like a mirror when we forget what we look like.

Here, we will try to laugh once more, even at our own death.

Fernando Delgado-Hierro

TEAM

Text

Fernando Delgado-Hierro

Directing

Juan Ceacero

Cast

Pablo Chaves and Fernando Delgado-Hierro

Set design

Pablo Chavez

Lighting

Rodrigo Ortega

Artistic team

TBC

Producer

Centro Dramático Nacional and La Compañía exlímite

Biography

Fernando Delgado-Hierro

Fernando Delgado-Hierro

He studied script interpretation at the RESAD in 2013, completed his learning by taking courses with the Open Group of Jerzy Grotowski, the SITI Company of Anne Bogart, in LAMDA (London Academy of Dramatic Arts) and with teachers such as David Zinder, Jeremy James, Fernanda Orazi, Pablo Messiez, Lucas Condró, Brigid Panet, Alfredo Sanzol and Sol Garre. He also trained for several years with the Vértico association, with which he learned disciplines such as View Points, Suzuki, Kalari and the Chekhov technique.

He began his career in theatre with La distancia, a piece that was adapted and directed by Pablo Messiez. He would work with him again in Bodas de Sangre by F.G Lorca, which premiered in the CDN, and in He nacido para verte sonreír, by Santiago Loza, at the Abadía theatre. He has worked with Grumelot and Carlos Aladro in Scratch, with Julio Provenció and La Belloq in Cuando caiga la nieve, and with Teatro en Vilo in Man Up, an original production for the Centro Dramático Nacional. Also on several productions with Juan Ceacero: Iliria, Comedia fallida and Los Remedios, a work for which he won the Max award for best new playwright in 2021. Also with La_Compañía exlímite, he wrote the script of Cluster, a piece staged in the Matadero in June 2021.

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In 2022, he directed and starred for the first time in El mal de la montaje at Teatro Español, based on a text by Santiago Loza and co-directed by Francesco Carril.

In 2024, he wrote Ficciones, a work released by La_Compañía exlímite in Teatros del Canal.

In film, he has acted in: Violeta no coge el ascensor (2019) by Mamen Díaz, Las niñas de Cristal (2022) by Jota Linares, Cerdita (2022) by Carlota Pereda, La consagración de la primavera (2022) by Fernando Franco and Hildegart by Paula Ortiz (2023).

© Luz Soria

Juan Ceacero

Juan Ceacero

Born in Úbeda, Jaén. He studied Audiovisual Communication at the Complutense (first cycle) and got a degree in Dramatic Art, Script Interpretation from RESAD (2005). He completed his training; with the SITI Company in Skidmore Collegue (USA), Phillip Zarrilli, David Zinder, Sophia Hill, Paola Rizzi, Fernando Piernas, Ellen Lauren, Leon Ingulsrud, Akiko Azawa, Hernán Gené, Will Keen, Sol Garre, Jeremy James and Michael Stubblefield.

In theatre, as an actor, his most recent works include El pato salvaje by H. Ibsen, directed by Carlos Aladro, Sueños y visiones by Rodrigo Rato de Pablo Remón and Roberto Maiztegui, directed by Raquel Alarcón, La noche justo antes de los bosques by B. M. Koltès, directed by Fernando Renjifo, Un cine arde y diez personas arden by Pablo Gisbert and Thyestes by Seneca, both by Grumelot, understudy in La ternura by Alfredo Sanzol, understudy in El tratamiento by Pablo Remón, Bodas de sangre by F. G. Lorca, directed by Pablo Messiez, Como está Madriz by Miguel del Arco; Titus Andronicus by W. Shakespeare, directed by Andrés Lima and Carne viva and Los dramáticos orígenes de las galaxias espirales, written and directed by Denise Despeyroux; A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka, directed by Luis D’Ors, La increíble historia de la chica que llegó la última by C. Guimará, directed by María Folguera.

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In the audiovisual field, he has starred in series like La Ruta (Atresmedia), Arde Madrid (Movistar+) Centro médico (TVE1) Amar en tiempos revueltos (TVE1), El comisario (Tele5), Con dos tacones (TVE1) and in short films such as El álbum blanco and Proceso de revelado.

In 2011, he co-founded with Michael Stubblefield and Sol Garrela Asociación Vértico, dedicated to training actors, research and creation. In 2014, together with Fernando Delgado-Hierro, he created the web series Diplarama, where the two write, act, direct and edit. His company’s first show, Iliria, by Denise Despeyrouxy, premiered in 2015, and in 2017, Moon River by Huichi Chiue Irma Correa. In 2018, he founded, with Gérard Imbert, Espacio exlímite, a training, research and collaboration project, and re-founded his company as La Compañía exlímite, with which he made Los Remedios in 2019, Cluster in 2021, De la Juventud in 2023 and Ficciones in 2024.

© Luis Malibrán