Por Roxana Valdés Isasi 
The play The sorrows did not kill me an autobiographical text written and directed by Miriam Muñoz to celebrate the 80th birthday of the master of the stage art, René Fernández, arrived at the Pedro Vera theatre in Unión de Reyes for the first time.
“Writing this play was a daring act. Albio Paz wrote Las Penas que a mí me matan for me. In 1991 it premiered and became a multi-award-winning monologue that travelled the world based on the story of the grey five-year period, a period in which I survived the parametrization.”
Mirita decided to add a different nuance to the play and in doing so dedicated the text to someone who contributed so much to the theatre and who also suffered the grey five-year period, René Fernández.
With a pleasant and humorous language, the testimony recalls wonderful moments in Matanzas, a time when enthusiasts went to the cinemas to watch famous films, the songs that everyone hummed. She also remembers when all the artists were a family, there was no disunity. “It was one of the most beautiful moments of this city,” she whispers.
In each performance Mirita remembers Pedro Vera, her friend and companion of so many years and thanks the public, lovers of the art of the stage, who do not miss a theatrical performance in the southern municipality of Matanzas.
The work invites reflection, dialogue. Through scenes supported by images, it explains the events of everyday life, recalls the life of the actress and, despite the wrong decisions during the gray five-year period, declares that the sorrows did not manage to kill her. (ALH)
Translated by Casterman Medina de Leon