A myth woven with the light of two moons
The musical of The Tears of Nerakhis is adapting an original novel written by Albert Suriñach, our creative director and founder of Studio Platero. Albert is a Classics students at the University of St Andrews. He also studied physics at the University of Barcelona, and published his first book, "Las Lágrimas de Nerakhis" in Spain. The book has been translated and is currently being published in English. In 2024 he produced and directed Dragon Fever at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews, an adaptation of his Spanish novel La fiebre del dragón, and in 2026, he directed the musical adaptation of The Tears of Nerakhis at the Byre Theatre as well.
There are many reasons why telling the story of ‘the Tears of Nerakhis’ is relevant to our modern world and the St Andrews student community. The novel is an adult fantasy where physical conflict is not the story’s catalyst and is portrayed as a futile resource. The central conflict pits nature against human beings, both on a metaphorical level with conflicts between gods, and on a psychological level through the mental evolution of the protagonist. Some of the themes explored in it are mortality, love, over-protectiveness and the destructive tendencies of humans towards nature. The fantastic elements in it have a mythological function and are found only with the appearance of divine or spiritual characters that represent the central themes addressed by the novel.
The story
The story tells the tragedy of an impossible love between a human and a divine creature. It takes place in a mythical world with two central deities: Nerakhis, god of nature, and his brother Reikwald, god of humanity. The protagonist, Calanthe, is a human girl who, frustrated with her mortality, rebels against the social conventions of her home castle. When she is forced to marry, she runs away and travels to find herself in the castle of the god Nerakhis. There she meets the daughter of the god of the night, Alea, a nymph of supernatural beauty imprisoned in the castle by her father to protect her from the world of men. Calanthe and Alea fall in love and escape, going on adventures that see them in the middle of a divine conflict between Chaos and Order.
