Printed
59 pages
Author(s)
La mirada de l'alquimista
Obra per a titelles i actors
This play was awarded the Valencian Writers' Critics' Prize by the Catalan Language Writers' Association in 2002. It is a drama with a very elaborate plot that brings to life a fictional universe nourished by cultural references to Central Europe at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The highly complex argument incorporates numerous spatial shifts as well as jumps and breaks in time.
The protagonist struggles against another self
The protagonist, Franz, is a young Viennese scientist who, during a hypnosis session conducted by Mesmer, learns that his cousin Angèlica, with whom he is in love, is in great danger. He decides to go to her rescue and, after many adventures, arrives in Budapest to find that she has just died. Convinced that she has been hypnotised by the alchemist Adam Le Fay, he keeps her body in ice, brings her back to his laboratory and tries various experiments to resurrect her. He fails and is accused of her murder by Napoleonic troops who have just entered Vienna. Sentenced to death, he is saved at the last moment by Le Fay who explains to him that if one of them dies, the other also perishes. They duel, Franz throws himself on Le Fay's sword, and both die at the same time. It is clear that they are two sides of the same personality, symbolising the conflict between rationalism and superstition.
Publications and translations
Rodolf Sirera, Pasqual Alapont, Paco Zarzoso. Umbracles (textos dramàtics per a titelles). Albaida: Museu Internacional de Titelles d'Albaida, 2001.