Performing Spanishness

Michael Thompson

Description

José María Rodríguez Méndez is a noted playwright, an acerbic cultural critic, and a political dissident under Franco. In Performing Spanishness, the first English-language examination of Méndez’s life and work, Michael Thompson sets the playwright’s lifelong struggle against censorship in the context of Spain’s shifting national identity. Méndez’s work presents 'Spanishness' not as a static trait, but as an ongoing performance; Performing Spanishness is an indispensable resource to those interested in theater, Spain, and the relationship between art and activism.

Sujets

• Theater
• Performing Arts
• Theatre
• Post-war
• General officer
• Spain
• Spain (groupe)
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 02 janvier 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781841509747
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

have been revived since 1975, and the book includes discussion of these influential productions. All

of censorship under a dictatorial regime. Some of his most powerful plays banned during that time

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popular performances of cultural identity in various periods from the middle ages to the present.

A New History of Spanish Writing, 1939 to the 1990s(2000), and has published articles and essays

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dictatorship through the uncertainties of the transition to democracy. Rodríguez Méndez’s theatre

The author locates the kernel of this impression in Rodríguez Méndez’s interpretation of ‘machismo

español’ as a volatile yet universal articulation of Spanish identity charged with the dissident voice of

popular resistance to constraining political and ideological structures.

M I C H A E L T H O M P S O N 41!

P E R F O R P E = R F O R M S I N G P  S PAN I S HNE S I S S

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quotations in Spanish are translated into English.

Dr. Michael Thompsonis a Lecturer in Spanish at the University of Durham. He is co-author of

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ISBN 978-1-84150-134-5

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Editor of the Durham Modern Languages Series.

dictatorship. He has also published translations of plays by Buero Vallejo and Pedrero. He is General

Vallejo, Rodríguez Méndez, Martín Recuerda and Pedrero and theatre censorship during the Franco

is saturated by the socially explosive concept of Spanishness, dramatized as a dazzling range of

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The analysis of Rodríguez Méndez’s work from the late 1950s to the mid-70s is enriched by detailed evidence from censors’ reports, providing fascinating case studies of the unpredictability

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The book traces the development of Rodríguez Méndez’s work from the hard times of the Franco

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intellectPO Box 862 Bristol BS99 1DE UK / www.intellectbooks.com

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on various aspects of modern Spanish theatre, including the work of García Lorca, Alberti, Buero

T H O M P S O N

most significant Spanish playwrights of the twentieth century & an acerbic cultural commentator.

This book delves into the theatre of Spanish dramatist José María Rodríguez Méndez, one of the

Performing Spanishness History, Cultural Identity and Censorship in the Theatre of José María Rodríguez Méndez

Michael Thompson

For Jenn and Alex

Performing Spanishness History, Cultural Identity and Censorship in the Theatre of José María Rodríguez Méndez

Michael Thompson

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First Published in the UK in 2007 by Intellect Book s, PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK

First published in the USA in 2007 by Intellect Boo ks, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Copyright © 2007 Intellect Ltd

Cover illustration: Flor de Otoño, Teatro Español ( Madrid), December 1982. Photograph by Manuel Martínez Muñoz.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any f orm or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.

Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover Design: Gabriel Solomons Copy Editor: Holly Spradling Typesetting: Mac Style, Nafferton, E. Yorkshire

ISBN 978-1-84150-134-5 / EISBN 978-1-84150-974-7

Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press, Malta.

C ONTENTS

List of illustrations

Introduction

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Dramatizing Spanishness

Rodríguez Méndez’s essays: realism,machismo español,inteligencia españolaand historical theatre

Inteligencia española Machismo español Historical theatre Summing up: the continuous ‘play’ of history, culture and power

History from below (1): enclosed spaces

Vagones de madera En las esquinas, banderas La Mano Negra El vano ayer

History from below (2): open spaces

El círculo de tiza de Cartagena Bodas que fueron famosas del Pingajo y la Fandanga Historia de unos cuantos La Chispa

Leading roles in history

Flor de Otoño El pájaro solitario

7

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43

48 51 61 66

71

73 85 88 93

103

104 110 128 144

153

154 169

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| PERFORMING SPANISHNESS

6.

Literatura española Teresa de Ávila Isabelita tiene ángel Reconquista Soy madrileño

Fading echoes of the past in contemporary Spain

Última batalla en El Pardo Contemporary Spain: the decline of machismo español Disillusionment and disorientation after Franco Conclusions

Bibliography

174 176 178 181 185

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194 197 206 213

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L IST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Photo: Rodríguez Méndez in Barcelona 2. Censor’s report on Vagones de madera (1960) 3. Photo: Bodas que fueron famosas del Pingajo y la Fandanga , Teatro Bellas Artes (Madrid), November 1978 4. Censor ’s report on Historia de unos cuantos (1973) 5. Photo: Flor de Otoño , Teatro Español (Madrid), December 1982 6. Photo: El pájaro solitario , CEU San Pablo (Valencia), 1998 7. Photo: Los inocentes de la Moncloa , Teatro Cómico (Madrid), January 1964 8. Photo: La marca del fuego , Real Coliseo Carlos III (San Lorenzo de El Escorial), November 1986

18 82

111 141 155 171

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I NTRODUCTION

Hay momentos en que uno se da cuenta de que la verdadera transición, la transición a una democracia normal, está aún por hacer. De hecho, pasamos del silencio del franquismo al silencio de hielo de una democracia que tenía demasiadas cosas que callar, demasiados fantasmas a los que era mejor no despertar, aunque quizá fueron menos los miedos y más los intereses no siempre confesables. El caso es que se ha hablado muy poco de nuestra historia reciente, como si mirar hacia atrás fuera perder pie en el camino del progreso. Así es como han quedado olvidados autores que, como José María Rodríguez Méndez, hubiesen debido vertebrar el resurgir posfranquista de la dramaturgia española 1 (Ley 2003).

Thirty years after the end of the Franco dictatorship, despite widespread public satisfaction with the outcome of the political, economic and social changes that have taken place in Spain, the lingering sense of unease about the past referred to by Pablo Ley in his review of a production of Rodríguez Méndez’s Flor de Otoño is never far from the surface. Recent interest in locating the graves of people executed during and after the civil war, and in identifying those responsible for human rights abuses, has crystallized a general feeling that too many memories have been suppressed, too many compromises were made for the sake of stability, too many stories have remained untold, and a great deal of history still needs to be written. Fictional texts in narrative, theatrical and cinematic form have played a very important role – both during the dictatorship and since – in reviving those memories, questioning those compromises, telling those stories and exploring that history, but the political and economic structures that govern the process of finding an audience have frequently obstructed attempts to break the silence.

The 2003 revival of Rodríguez Méndez’s Flor de Otoño (in the Teatre Artenbrut, Barcelona), despite being a small-scale production in an ‘alternative’ venue, prompted a number of reviews containing remarks similar to those quoted above,