The Dark Stone

At face value, The Dark Stone by Alberto Conejero imagines the relationship between a tortured prisoner of war and his young guard. What raises the dramatic stakes is that the prisoner is Rafael Rodriguez Rapun, the inspiration behind Lorca’s Sonnets of Dark Love and as he faces almost certain execution he must charge his guard with the safe-keeping of a selection of Lorca’s poetry.

This tightly knotted two-hand play takes a little while to draw us in but succeeds less on the characters and more on the situation. Rafael's passion for Lorca and his work leaps from the text but there is more to the guard Sebastian than a mindless soldier. Conejero explores his story first. How as a child, the Fascists killed Sebastian's family and brainwashed him into joining them during the Spanish Civil War. Sebastian spends as much time protecting Rafael in prison as he does guarding him, well aware of how cruel his masters can be. He understands that Rafael is doomed but he has to decide why and how he can help him.

 

This is an intense play and the chemistry between Santiago Del Fosco as the melancholy Sebastian and Jaime Menendez as Rafael binds it together securely. Fosco captures that lost innocence of a child forced into a uniform, proud of his gun but instinctively cautious of its power. Rafael is a more complex character, used to hiding and unsure who he can wholly trust. Bereft of all hope he must develop some sort of relationship with Sebastian, or be forgotten by history. He needs to go to the grave with at least an idea that someone will know who he was. Menendez's is a wholly absorbing performance, honest and ultimately heartbreaking.

 

Sergio Maggiolo's understated direction is complemented by a simple yet immaculate design, using the thrust stage of the Cervantes to its best advantage.