Golden Age Drama in Contemporary Spain

Duncan Wheeler is associate professor in Spanish studies at the University of Leeds, where he is also a member of the Executive Committee for the Centre for World Cinemas.

"An important book that reflects the decisive moment Golden Age drama is currently passing through on the contemporary stage" Eduardo Vasco Director, National Classical Theatre Company "The stage history of the Spanish Golden Age comedia during the twentieth and twenty first centuries has been subject to patchy critical attention. This accomplished book offers a thorough engagement with the findings, observations and opinions of comedia textual scholars, Golden Age historians, literary critics, theatre critics, practitioners, and programmers to look at the reasons for this. It also demonstrates an awareness of broader tendencies and trends in Spanish theatre, as well as trends and agendas in the historiography of modern Spanish theatre: the emerging role of the director; censorship; the sites of performance; the relationship between state, performance and ideology. Perceptive performance analysis is offered but this is always contextualised within broader opinions and a critical framework that draws on a range of topical texts. An indispensable study for any academic, critic or practitioner interested in the staging of Golden Age works in the modern era." Maria M. Delgado Professor of Theatre and Screen Arts, Queen Mary University of London "This book offers a highly original and richly illuminating account of the reception of the three major dramatists of the Spanish Golden Age (Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Calderon de la Barca) in post-Civil War Spain. Duncan Wheeler proves himself a sophisticated cultural historian as well as theatre and film critic, as he rigorously grounds his analysis of modern stage and screen adaptations of Spain s classical drama in their institutional, ideological and material contexts. This is a major contribution not only to comedia studies but also to our understanding of contemporary Spanish culture in all its complexity." --Laura Bass, Associate Professor in Spanish, Tulane University

• Introduction Chapter 1: The performance history of Golden Age drama in Spain (1939 - 2009) Chapter 2: An (early) modern classic: Fuente Ovejuna in contemporary Spain Chapter 3: Resurrecting lost traditions? Calderon's wife-murder plays and the CNTC Chapter 4: Cinema and Golden Age drama: the comedia goes to the movies Chapter 5: Locating Spanish classical drama in (inter)national contexts: Almagro, the CNTC, and the RSC Conclusion