A trail in the stars: The Little Prince lights up the Teatro de Las Estaciones (+ photos).

From that beautiful path of learning, delights and invisible poems to say at twilight time, families enjoy a journey whose nearest destination is the truth, a journey that will always leave a trail in the stars and joys in the soul.

Since I first attended the Pepe Camejo hall and then began to know the repertoire of Las Estaciones, I was always particularly surprised by the absence of a classic of children’s literature among their works; but they say that everything comes in time and it was now, in 2025, when Rubén Darío Salazar made the mystery of The Little Prince his own.

«Many years ago, when I was a child, my father gave me a framed edition of The Little Prince, from 1969, which I still have, and in 2019, when the group turned 25, Zenén gave me a mini-book of The Little Prince. Along the way I had read a beautiful collection of poems and these are things that come together».

However, The Little Prince did not arrive alone to the Moon and Sun troop. It did so by the hand of Asteroide B-612, a poetic look by José Manuel Espino Ortega at Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s work, winner of the 2015 UNEAC Ismaelillo Award.

«It would be very difficult to look at it impartially, because it is a work that starts from a text I wrote at a very difficult time in my life when I had eye surgery and could not even write. From there it was a different experience.

«Now to have the blessing, exact word, that Las Estaciones took up the text to give it a new theatrical vision is something fabulous and that certainly excited me a lot.

«It excites me because they are looks at Exupery from the theater, which play with the texts of my book, but also have a look that goes beyond to music, to the visual, in a way that is a joy.

«It gives me the feeling that you really feel that an asteroid has arrived when you see the play. They feel under that shelter also with the fear that the little prince has in these times.

«I think that’s why it’s also a brave play, because it’s beautiful to go back to the classics from a contemporary point of view. And that is what Rubén does, in a masterful way, as he has always done. That is indisputable.

In the process of research on the National Puppet Theater, which resulted in the book Mito, realidad y retablo, Salazar found the original program of the 1965 show, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this 2025, and everything came together to attend a new and novel reading of the play, premiered in Matanzas in early March.

«I wanted a puppet version. We made a version based on Espino’s book, a poetic-puppet version. Poetry is the natural language of puppets. So, if you’re going to have a scene, for example, from the Drinker, which is about three pages in the original, Espino says:

Bebe, bebe, solo y tanto,
con mil botellas sin brillo,
arma su propio castillo
del que se adueña el espanto.
Pobre reino del desencanto,
donde ni a soñar se atreve,
confunde el sol con la nieve,
pobre su tristeza ve
y le recuerda por qué,
hasta el mismo fondo, bebe.

«It’s a wonderful synthesis. It’s all very symbolic. The story is always told starting with the Aviator. I work with children and I tell the story starting with the little boy. My child is not blond or thin, he is chubby and hairy-colored. It is a very particular version in the manner of Theater of the Seasons».

This is one of the most represented, translated and versioned classic texts of universal literature. What might seem like a guarantee of success, in reality often becomes the greatest challenge for a creator: to surprise with his own look at a text that has been visited so many times.

«Making The Little Prince is a major challenge. It is a play that is made after World War II. It is a work of hope, it is a work of rebirth, it is a humanist work, but complicated by its subject matter, that although the book is for children, it has a hard subject matter.

«There are no longer things that surprise children because children also live through wars, as in Gaza, as in Ukraine. In other words, they are part of something they should not have to suffer. Children also experience shortages, bad economies, social processes, geographical migrations. The child lives it all.

«At least we theatrical artists have the mission to make their imagination fly, to contribute to make them happy, but not stupid; that they are also formed in humanism, in the altruistic philosophy, in solidarity, in all the cultural values of peace in the midst of which the child should grow, rise».

Then the blue spills all over the room and there are no longer any barriers between spectators and actors, between the child on stage and those who watch him with a mixture of curiosity and tenderness.

At the very moment you approach the galactic space, the beautiful music composed by Raúl Valdés, the choreographies of Yadiel Durán and the wonderful designs of Zenén Calero Medina make you doubt if you are still sitting in your seat or if, by magic (that infinite magic of theater), you are flying over another planet.

«Each technique, each puppet, each planet is completely different. There is no visual homogeneity in the show, except on Earth, except on the planet of the Little Prince. In other words, each aesthetic has a difference».

The performances also shine in this puppet version of The Little Prince. «It’s a mixture of generations of theatrical artists, of puppeteers. Right now there is Iván García, who has been here since 2006, and someone very young, like Laura Marín, who arrived last year.

«It is a mixture of words and deeds that complement a show that wants to talk here and now about humanity, culture, the importance of art and the beauty of life. The Little Prince is a play where the protagonist dies, but he dies fighting to find his world again».

Arlettis Cazorla was part of the cast during its first productions with singular sensitivity. Ale García, Iris Mantilla, Raúl Alvarez and María Laura Germán. Yadiel Durán and María Laura Germán are also assistant directors.

«It is super emotional because it is a story that almost everyone knows, that is marked in the world’s imagination, in this version with a look truly from the child, from the child’s ailment, from the child’s needs.

«In Teatro de Estaciones we do a theater directed mainly to children, but that involves the whole family, looking for the formation of values, from all the importance of the family, the importance of the child in the context, because the child can also feel alone in childhood. The child can feel unprotected in childhood.

«So, it goes from this journey that makes this little prince different, in the way Zenén Calero and Rubén Darío Salazar see it. And it emits a beautiful journey where the planets, he who knows the book, leaves in five minutes and you have to see it.» (Ale García)

«Many roles because, as in the book, the prince travels through several planets where he meets the Drinker, the Geographer, the Lanternman and so on. It has been hard work on a physical level because it takes a lot of choreography. We are tied, in a certain way, to music as well». (Iris Mantilla)

«I think Rubén wanted to do it that way so that the child sees himself reflected in that child because almost all the versions that have been done are done just like the novel, from the Pilot’s point of view. So he tries to give value and prominence to the child». (Raúl Alvarez).

«These are very hard times and I’m not just talking about a national reality, I’m talking about an international reality. Very convulsive times, very dark, even for children, although sometimes we think that children do not realize it, because somehow all these strange realities affect them.

«So, these are times when we have to, from the theater, which is what we do best, and from poetry, bring children out of that nebula, give them a little magic, a space where they can feel that we work for them, from them and where they feel free to fantasize.

«We are used to seeing the Little Prince from the vision of the Aviator. Now, suddenly, at the center of the show is the child and how he discovers all the planets.

«These are also times where families are constantly breaking up, where relatives are moving away and children also live this reality. Suddenly, maybe seeing a child on stage, who being alone is not so alone, let’s help the children a little bit to know that this loneliness is not always as big as they think. We are always there for them. (María Laura Germán)

The Matanzas collective’s version of The Little Prince is faithful and consistent with the essence of Teatro de Las Estaciones: from multiple stories, with aesthetics as varied as situations and characters, it praises the child as the center of all processes, without prejudices or taboos, and denounces all possible scenarios that are difficult for him, while defending the need to always find the beauty of living.

According to Rubén, «one has to find the optimistic parts of life, because the pessimistic ones are already there. Life has hard moments that one has to face, but finding beauty in a sunset like the little prince, nobody can break that; finding beauty in flowers, listening to good music. The Little Prince responds to that and Teatro de Las Estaciones always responds to the beauty of whatever tendency it may be. I am referring to that beauty, to the beauty of man, the inner and outer beauty».

Meanwhile, after enjoying the staging, José Manuel Espino is excited, satisfied and moved. «I feel absolutely happy, like a child. Bewitched is the word that could also fit, because not all the time one is lucky enough to have someone take your texts to another dimension, to a look so particular and that dialogues so faithfully with yours.

«That is something I am also grateful for, the fidelity that existed with the texts, that there was absolute respect. I am infinitely happy that it is them and my wish is immense that more people can reach this work».

Rubén Darío Salazar, at the helm of Las Estaciones, took as a reference the works of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and José Manuel Espino and designed a show full of metaphors, in which love is always venerated.

Un rastro en las estrellas will return to the stage of the Pepe Camejo Hall in a single performance on Saturday, May 24, to be presented at the Adolfo Llauradó Hall on Friday, May 30 at 5 p.m., Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1, at 11 a.m. as part of the program of the Encuentro Internacional de Artes para la Infancia Corazón feliz (International Meeting of Arts for Children, Happy Heart).

From that beautiful path of learning, delights and invisible poems to say at twilight time, families enjoy a journey whose nearest destination is the truth, a journey that will always leave a trace in the stars and joys in the soul.

Written by Jessica Mesa.