On November the 12th, two hundred people attended the premiere of the musical "Conversion” (#Ignatius500) at the Caja Blanca in Malaga. The audience, which consisted mainly of employees of the Malaga schools and relatives of the actors, enjoyed the 90 minutes of the performance very much, sometimes clapping along to some of the well-known melodies and letting themselves be carried away by the superb performance of Manuel in the role of Ignatius of Loyola. The voice and interpretation of Belén, who plays an old woman with whom Ignatius is already in Manresa, was also highly praised.

The musical begins with the coming into the world of Ignatius. A carpenter carves a small cradle. After a happy childhood with his brothers, Ignatius leaves the house of Loyola in search of adventure and glory. "My fatherland is the world and Castile is my flag", sings the young Ignatius, who wants nothing to do with devotions and dances with the girls of Arevalo.

The French assault on Pamplona, the wounding of Ignatius and his transfer to Loyola, all this is presented to us before we reach the central moment of the musical, the moment of Ignatius' first conversion in Loyola and his subsequent pilgrimage in which he meets different people who reveal to him God's love for all his creatures. The journey to Monserrat, the change of his clothes and the beginning of the composition of the book of the Spiritual Exercises are narrated in a very visual way and, in general, well accompanied by the corps de ballet. The story ends with an Ignatius who has not only discovered, but who has felt God's love within himself. Completely abandoned into God's hands, the musical bids farewell with Ignatius setting off again in search of adventure, bound for Jerusalem. Only this time it is no longer he himself who is at the helm of his life. Hence the song at the beginning changes and now becomes "my homeland is the world and Love is my flag".

Outside the plot of the musical, and always bearing in mind that we are dealing with an amateur production, the audience's satisfaction was remarkable. The voices, the corps de ballet and the intervals between scenes that ended up turning the stalls into a medieval market with vegetables and cloths made for a very special evening that was crowned with a prolonged round of applause.

For those of you who have not had the opportunity to see it live, the intention is to distribute copies so that it can even be reproduced in schools, universities, etc.