Civic Responsibility or Directorial Prerogative: Ignacio García's Political Staging of Calderón's La cisma de Inglaterra

In his 2015 staging of Calderón's La cisma de Inglaterra on the boards of Madrid's Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico, under the title of Enrique VIII y La cisma de Inglaterra, the director Ignacio García discerned three possible readings of the playwright's text: (1) a "religious" approach centering on the "great matter," a momentous schism between the Anglican and Catholic Churches perpetrated by Enrique VIII; (2) a "melodramatic" emphasis on a tragic love triangle between a king and two queens; and (3) a "civic-political" focus on what happens when a leader privileges private passions and abandons governmental responsibilities. García presented himself as a "barometer of society" in opting to meditate on issues of civic responsibility vis-à-vis political and administrative corruption.