Gwynne Edwards – författare

Bernarda Alba is a widow, and her five daughters are incarcerated in mourning along with her. One by one they make a bid for freedom, with tragic consequences. Lorca''s tale depicts the repression of women within Catholic Spain in the years before the war.

The House of Bernarda Alba is Lorca''s last and possibly finest play, completed shortly before he was murdered by Nationalist sympathisers at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Inspired by real characters and described by the author as ''a true record of village life'', it is a tragic tale of frustration and explosive passions in a household of women rulled by a tyrannical mother.

Edited with invaluable student notes - a must for students of Spanish drama

Bernarda Alba is a widow, and her five daughters are incarcerated in mourning along with her. One by one they make a bid for freedom, with tragic consequences. Lorca''s tale depicts the repression of women within Catholic Spain in the years before the war.

The House of Bernarda Alba is Lorca''s last and possibly finest play, completed shortly before he was murdered by Nationalist sympathisers at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Inspired by real characters and described by the author as ''a true record of village life'', it is a tragic tale of frustration and explosive passions in a household of women rulled by a tyrannical mother.

Edited with invaluable student notes - a must for students of Spanish drama

Blood Wedding is set in a village community in Lorca''s Andalusia, and tells the story of a couple drawn irresistibly together in the face of an arranged marriage. This tragic and poetic play is the work on which his international reputation was founded.

Like many of Lorca''s passionate and intensely lyrical plays that focus on peasant life and the forces of nature, Blood Wedding combines innovatory dramatic technique with Spanish popular tradition.

Blood Wedding is set in a village community in Lorca''s Andalusia, and tells the story of a couple drawn irresistibly together in the face of an arranged marriage. This tragic and poetic play is the work on which his international reputation was founded.

Like many of Lorca''s passionate and intensely lyrical plays that focus on peasant life and the forces of nature, Blood Wedding combines innovatory dramatic technique with Spanish popular tradition.

Mariana Pineda achieved immediate critical success on its first performance in Barcelona in 1927. The Public is a powerful and uncompromising demand for sexual, and specifically homosexual, freedom - as predicted it was never performed in Lorca''s time - it was first performed in this country by Theatre Royal Stratford East in the 80s. Play Without a Title, an unfinished Lorca rarity, realises his wish ''to do something different, including modern plays on the age we live in''.

Mariana Pineda achieved immediate critical success on its first performance in Barcelona in 1927. The Public is a powerful and uncompromising demand for sexual, and specifically homosexual, freedom - as predicted it was never performed in Lorca''s time - it was first performed in this country by Theatre Royal Stratford East in the 80s. Play Without a Title, an unfinished Lorca rarity, realises his wish ''to do something different, including modern plays on the age we live in''.

The Shoemaker''s Wonderful Wife and The Love of Don Perlimplín use an old story of the old man married to the young wife to expose the social attitudes of a traditional Spain bound by rigid concepts of decency, reputation and honour. The Puppet Play deploys the puppets'' uninhibited and passionate emotions as a direct attack on the ''tedious triviality'' of commercial theatre. The Butterfly''s Evil Spell explores the themes of love and frustration, while When Five Years Pass is a surrealist play with references to the film Un Chien Andalou [The Andalusian Dog] by Lorca''s friend and collaborator, Luis Buñuel.

The Shoemaker''s Wonderful Wife and The Love of Don Perlimplín use an old story of the old man married to the young wife to expose the social attitudes of a traditional Spain bound by rigid concepts of decency, reputation and honour. The Puppet Play deploys the puppets'' uninhibited and passionate emotions as a direct attack on the ''tedious triviality'' of commercial theatre. The Butterfly''s Evil Spell explores the themes of love and frustration, while When Five Years Pass is a surrealist play with references to the film Un Chien Andalou [The Andalusian Dog] by Lorca''s friend and collaborator, Luis Buñuel.

Two of the most famous and successful playwrights of Spain''s Golden Age of playwriting were Lope de Vega (1562-1635) and Rojas Zorrilla (1607-48). From their prodigious output, the three plays in this volume, based on similar sources to Shakespeare''s and Webster''s versions, provide a fascinating comparison with their Jacobean counterparts.Lope''s The Duchess of Amalfi''s Steward, in contrast to Webster''s play, focuses on the nobility of love, with characters who are complex and appealing. His Romeo-and-Juliet story, The Capulets and Montagues, is a fast-moving mixture of serious and comic, with an ending that will surprise and entertain. Rojas'' treatment of Cleopatra, with its rich imagery, emphasises the love theme, held within a knot of jealous relationships. A full introduction by Gwynne Edwards sets the plays in context and provides a thorough study of the individual works.

Two of the most famous and successful playwrights of Spain''s Golden Age of playwriting were Lope de Vega (1562-1635) and Rojas Zorrilla (1607-48). From their prodigious output, the three plays in this volume, based on similar sources to Shakespeare''s and Webster''s versions, provide a fascinating comparison with their Jacobean counterparts.Lope''s The Duchess of Amalfi''s Steward, in contrast to Webster''s play, focuses on the nobility of love, with characters who are complex and appealing. His Romeo-and-Juliet story, The Capulets and Montagues, is a fast-moving mixture of serious and comic, with an ending that will surprise and entertain. Rojas'' treatment of Cleopatra, with its rich imagery, emphasises the love theme, held within a knot of jealous relationships. A full introduction by Gwynne Edwards sets the plays in context and provides a thorough study of the individual works.