In the 19th century, a mysterious manuscript was found in the English countryside, containing diary excerpts and love poems written by a woman named Ester. In the texts, she describes how she slowly disappears by giving herself completely to her loved ones. Alberto Cortés draws a parallel between surrendering to a lover and surrendering to the audience—each relationship determined by watching and being watched, and how being watched ultimately causes one to disappear. That is why he has limited the life of this performance to 50 presentations, after which it will be exhausted by the audience’s gaze, like a candle finally extinguished. Cortés also wonders whether there is such a thing as queer devotion, and links this to the hope for a new future.

After the success of Analphabet, Cortés presents another hypnotic performance in which literature, delicacy, and romantic confessions come together in a graceful alliance. El corazón de Ester is a poetic confession about the performativity of love that both nourishes and wears us out, the existential dimension of loneliness, and the vulnerability of the body. It is a ritual performance about the stage as a place of pilgrimage for devotion, risk, and love—and a plea for more care for performing.