Characters

ROBERTO

played by Ramiro Ruiz Hernandez
Roberto, a Puppeteer from Havanna, dreams of travelling to Norway one day to perform at a theatre festival there. A Norwegian theatre manager had given him the idea when Roberto had become acquainted with him two years earlier. Roberto, once a succsessful artist, now only performs in open air gardens located in remote quarters of Havana. Nothing in comparison to the a regular commitment he formerly had in a theatre in the centre of Havanna, but since the day he stole from the cash during a spell of alcohol intoxication, he had fallen out with Tony, the theatre manager. Roberto retires increasingly unnoticed to his secret rehearsal stage. Here in hiding he develops the most intriguing puppet scenes, fruit of imaginativeness and talent which nobody gets to see.

MARIA

played by Olga Lidia Alfonso

Maria, a former dancer and now living with Roberto, had been a popular in the Cuba. Now she is trying her luck as choreographer but the success is long in coming. So she has to struggle to survive as an assistant wardrobe manageress in a Cabaret. Sometimes someone speaks to her about her glory days, but Roberto is totally engrossed with himself and his puppets and neglects her all to frequent. Maria seeks attention further afield with other men, while Roberto notices nothing of this. In spite of all this Maria does not want to leave Roberto, and when the going gets tough, she stands by him. She views with deep concern his increasing hostility to others and his alcoholism. Involved as she was in her struggle to survive, for her these obstacles were heaping more straw on the camel’s back which was already very close to breaking.

LAS MARIONETAS

played by Ramiro Ruiz Hernandez and Juan Junco Hidalgo
There are five puppets: The Devil, The Sorcerer, Roberto, Maria and the blonde girl. Roberto and his late wife Olga had created the puppets not only with their own four hands and imagination but also twined them with their hair and soaked the puppets‘ bodies with Olga’s blood in order to charge them with mystical forces. Thus an indestroyable connection were established which still grew stronger after Olga’s death. The Roberto puppet is challenged by the roguish Devil to leap over insurmountable hurdles in some of the magical puppet scenes invented by Roberto. At times the Devil makes Roberto’s name disappear into sand; at others he puts wrong words into his mouth. It always ends up badly for Roberto, who finishes up either losing his soul or joining the army. When the Devil puts a dagger into the red-haired lady’s hands, with which she is supposed to knife down Roberto, he reflects that where there’s a knife there is always a murderer……