ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS
ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS
UC3M Theater Group
Date: September 26, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Location: Casa de México – Calle de Alberto Aguilera, 20, 28015 Madrid
Director: Abel González Melo
“On a Night Like This,” written by Luisa Josefina Hernández (Mexico), is a play that explores the impact of everyday life, personal memory, and human tensions through a poetic and deeply human theatrical language. Performed by the UC3M Theater Group under the direction of Abel Gonzalez Melo, the play offers a sensory and reflective journey that raises questions about identity, presence, and community.
Synopsis
On a night like this, it plunges us into the magical world of the countryside, amid curious superstitions, supposed miracles, and plenty of mischief. With sensitivity and humor, throughout various scenes, characters parade before us who seem to have been plucked from Mexican muralism, a Valle-Inclán-esque grotesque, or a medieval farce: beings without a place, timeless, who traverse the ages carrying the hope of love on their backs, with the desire to heal themselves, guided by some spurious interest or by a powerful faith in the afterlife. The author conceives this fable of longings and deceptions for a group of performers who move from one situation to another. Our production draws on the linguistic and dramatic richness of Luisa Josefina Hernández—a master of the Spanish-American stage—to engage with theater, to observe this gallery of characters with tenderness and wonder, and to savor the enigma and the ritual in the glow of the light and accompanied by a guitar.
About the Author
Luisa Josefina Hernández was a renowned Mexican playwright, novelist, essayist, and translator. She studied literature with a specialization in drama at the School of Philosophy and Letters at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and received a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1955. She was part of a generation of intellectuals that included Emilio Carballido, Rosario Castellanos, and Sergio Magaña, among others. Rodolfo Usigli appointed her to the chair of Dramatic Theory at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at UNAM, where she became the first and only woman in the 20th century to be named professor emerita. In 1971, she won the Magda Donato Prize for *Nostalgia de Troya*, and in 1982, the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize for *Apocalipsis cum figuris*. Her masterpiece of dramatic work is, for many, the twelve-part saga “Los grandes muertos.” She was the recipient of the Juan Ruiz de Alarcón National Theater Prize in 2000 and the National Prize for Science and the Arts in the field of Linguistics and Literature in 2002. One month after her death, the Senate of the Republic honored her with the Rosario Castellanos Literary Merit Award for the year 2022.
Cast
Claudia Bonet, Matías García Cirujano, Elia Gómez Morate, Clara Guerra Diez, Iván López Moya, José Carlos Marán, Sara Martínez Arroyo, Mariana Medina, Irene Ortiz, Álvaro Penella de Salas, Auba Plomer, Clío Ramos Rodríguez, Fabien Antoine Sebastian Schmitt, and Lucía Simón Román
Creative Team
Text: Luisa Josefina Hernández
Director: Abel González Melo
Sound Space, Vocal Training, and Guitar Mastery: Antonio Dueñas
Costumes and Set Design: Javier Chavarría
Choreography: Claudia Bonet and Irene Ortiz
Assistant Directors and Acting Coaches: Laura González Cortón and María Colibrí
Technical, Management, and Production Team: UC3M Culture Department and Auditorium