Classical Spanish Drama on the Contemporary French Stage

The new Cambridge Guide to World Theatre affirms that Calderón is rarely staged outside Spain. Henry Sullivan's 1983 book establishes that this generalization has not been true with respect to the German lands, and it likewise does not apply to France. Calderón may be considered an integrated playwright in French repertory. Several of his works have been performed repeatedly in stagings that have received national visibility; in 1982 his name was added to the roster of the Comédie Française. La Celestina, first staged in French by Albert Camus in Algeria in 1936, has also had notable productions in France, including a controversial one at the Comédie Française in 1975. Among Golden Age playwrights, Cervantes, particularly his entremeses, continues to enjoy popularity in France. Indeed Golden Age drama has been associated in France with popular theatre, as defined by Jean Vilar and Roger Planchon. The sometimes unacknowledged French debt to Spanish drama is foregrounded in two plays from the 1970s in which the original Spanish authors become characters in the French texts: Dennis Llorca's production of Corneille's Le Cid and Eduardo Manet's metaplay based on Ruiz de Alarcón's Las paredes oyen. The statement in the Cambridge Guide notwithstanding, Spanish classical drama, particularly Calderón, does play north of the Pyrenees. (PZ)