Saturday 1 March 2025

“Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana

Song of First Desire. Belvoir – Borja Maestre, Kerry Fox.(Photo Brett Boardman)

These famous words, fittingly penned by Madrid-born Spanish-American philosopher, Santayana, are at the crux of this riveting, powerful real life drama. In Song of First Desire we are thrown head-long into the Spanish Civil War. We become embroiled in the brutality of life under Spain’s Francisco Franco, whose not-so-long-ago fascist reign ended in 1975. Visiting Spain today it’s hard to imagine, in some ways understandable, the denial bought about by shame on the one hand and horror on the other, both persisting in some sections of Spanish society still today. A society of the Two Spains. It makes seeing this play all the more compelling, meaningful and poignant.

Song of First Desire. Belvoir – Kerry Fox, Jorge Muriel.(Photo Brett Boardman)

The drama opens in an unkempt garden (Mel Page’s simple but efficient set design) with Camelia (Sarah Peirse) an old frail woman who is clearly losing her mental faculties, as she tries to remember some lines from Federico Garcia Lorca’s poem Song of First Desire. The foundations of the play are brilliantly established in the opening seconds: enter her adult twin children, Julia (Kerry Fox) and Carlos (Jorge Muriel) who carry enough emotional baggage to set up sufficient tension for the next uninterrupted 110 minutes. And if that’s not enough, nothing creates friction more than the unexpected entry of a handsome stranger, Alejandro (Borja Maestre).

With the cast of four now onstage it’s a case of ‘let the games begin’. And to add a further layer of complication we are going to switch constantly from the present to 1968 at the height of Franco’s brutal reign, with the same actors playing multiple roles, revealing over time the hidden connections and the dark secrets that have never been spoken. Its all there: everything from violence, rape and incest to forced exile, child abduction and summary execution. It does get complex trying to follow the time sequence and the connections between the characters, but Neil Armfield (director) employs some helpful if not clunky theatrical aids to assist – big illuminated signs that say THEN and NOW.

Song of First Desire. Belvoir – Jorge Muriel, Borja Maestre, Kerry Fox, Sarah Peirse.(Photo Brett Boardman)

The play was written by Australian playwright Andrew Bovell and was created in collaboration with the Numero Uno Collective in Madrid. Both Muriel and Maestre appeared in the original production, and Muriel translated the script for the Australian run. Before seeing the play I was wondering how they would approach the Spanish accents, as I had already interviewed Muriel (listen to our chat below) and his Spanish accent is deliciously thick. Fox and Peirse both used their natural voices and I found no conflict in the sound, as the strong male Spanish accents lent the play some authenticity.

Both Bovell and Armfield appreciate, but never overtly reference, the similarities with the indigenous Australian history of Terra Nullius and the post-Franco policy of Pacto del Olvido (Pact of Forgetting) where the dark history was politely not spoken about. It is this denial that is the impetus for this drama and drives all the tension. When it is finally spoken, all the violence, racism and revenge is exposed and bought into the light so it can be dealt with. Alejandro’s impassioned plea at the end of the play is the most heart-felt moment of desire for resolution. It is also a helpful recapitulation of who is related to whom in this complex narrative.

Song of First Desire is a powerful play that pulls no punches, a riveting drama that holds you from the first scene to the final fade, no mean feat. A timely lesson in what happens if we ignore, or choose to forget the traumas of the past – history tends to repeat more readily. Similarly we are reminded – especially salient in today’s turbulent times – that fascism and nationalism are never far from resurfacing, requiring a constant need for vigilance and open dialogue.

You can listen to a recent interview with Jorge Muriel here: