The epistolary relationship between a poet and a cadet invites us to reflect on the future of humanity

The Austrian poet Rainier Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is considered a “quintessential loner.” However, his extensive epistolary relationships have been the subject of books and studies. One of the most intense was with Franz Xaver Kappus, a young cadet at a military academy who wrote to him in 1902 to ask him about poetry.

From that friendship the book was born Letters to a young poet, published in 1929, a work that was adapted in the one-man show Dear Mr. Rilke, directed by Nora Manneck and starring Adrián Alarcón. The piece was presented over the weekend at the Sergio Magaña theater.

In interview with The Day, The actor spoke about his approach to the history of this friendship, which led to life lessons that the poet gave to the young soldier between 1903 to 1908, and in which they reflected on loneliness, irony, life in art, divinity and other topics.

“The idea was born from a concern of the director Nora Manneck, who is German and has been my teacher for many years; she was a dancer and comes from an expressionist school. In a workshop she brought us some texts by Rilke and we decided to work on them from the body. Shortly after she managed to get hold of Xaver Kappus’s letters, and it was very evident that we had to do something with them,” she commented.

This 2026 marks 123 years since Rainier and Franz exchanged correspondence for the first time, when the young man was at the Austrian military academy in Wiener-Neustadt. After a talk with the chaplain, he decided to send some essays and poems to the Austrian poet, who had also studied there, and who responded weeks later with a solemn greeting. In those years, Rilke was a friend of the sculptor August Rodin and later briefly became his secretary.

Adrián Alarcón commented: “We usually read the letters that Rilke sent, but not those of

The actor stated that this staging is an expressionist montage, so they took the liberty of overlooking a more rigid structure in terms of timeline or space: “Although at the beginning we give the context of the story, we prefer to let ourselves be carried away by the flow of ideas that emerge. That is why this montage requires a lot of the viewer’s attention.”

An important point is the valuable reflection on where humanity is heading. “What are we going to bet on? War and destruction, or poetics and art? And in what parameters will we make that decision. At that time Franz was doing very well as a soldier, even more than as a writer and, although he was able to publish something, he never had the relevance of “Letters to a young poet.”

He added: “These are issues that come to mind due to the current context. We see the escalation of violence here, the conflict in Palestine, the war in Ukraine. It is something so present and alive that we need to continue asking ourselves in an open forum, because it can help us make other decisions as a society.”

For the actor, this work was a challenge, since it encouraged him to inhabit other realities and points of view in a time that is not his own. “There is much of the germ of this discussion in humans and, therefore, also in me. Being a 21st century Mexican I was able to connect with the essence of the themes, concerns and fears of Rainier and Kappuz.

“We have to get back to the creative need. I see it with my career; I have been an actor for 20 years, and I think that when you continue to believe and defend this profession, you have to recover an original impulse, because, if not, you really expose yourself to throwing in the towel. It is a marathon upwards, and it never stops being that,” he said.

The piece premiered on stage in 2022, and has been performed primarily in small forums, allowing for an atmosphere of intimacy.

The lessons of this staging do not belong to a specific historical moment, but to a common bond. “This belongs to everyone, and it is possible to connect with people in that sense, regardless of whether it is foreign or critical to us to overcome that barrier. This piece is committed to the bond, and beyond differences, times and spaces, we are human beings,” said the actor.