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On September 29, 1967, María Antonia is premiered at the Mella Theater, with a script by Eugenio Hernández Espinosa, one of our most important playwrights, in a production of the Taller Dramático Group and the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional (National Folkloric Ensemble,) under the direction of the great Roberto Blanco and with the starring performance of the unforgettable Hilda Oates. The appearance of this work, written originally in 1964, would mark one of the stellar moments of the Cuban theater within that creative emergence that the sixties meant, during a period of unprecedented shock and social transformation. Like all shift-away works, since its premiere it found passionate defenders and outraged detractors, all surprised and excited about its novelty.
María Antonia stands on the endearing recognition of the contribution of the black and popular culture as actors within the Cuban social and cultural dynamics. The marginal condition of its characters points to long-standing class and racial conflicts within society, and the script has the virtue of showing them in all their human complexity.
The transcendence of María Antonia as a play is the result, regardless of its dramaturgical qualities, of its social, artistic and human connotations. It is still studied and included in anthologies in different parts of the world, and represented within Cuba by professional or amateur theater groups. It even deserved a film version.
Fifty years after its premiere, María Antonia continues to move everyone who approaches its universe, and continues to be Cuba at its root and transcendent core.