Five Plays: Comedies and Tragicomedies

by Federico García Lorca, James Graham-Lujan (Translator), Richard L. O'Connell (Translator)

Two additional comedies, published here in book form in English for the first time, are The Billy-Club Puppets ― a guignol-type farce with delicate wit; and The Butterfly’s Evil Spell , an "insect comedy" about a beetle-poet who aspires to be a butterfly. Federico García Lorca’s position as one of the few geniuses of the modern theatre was firmly established in the English-speaking world with his Three Tragedies . Here, with an introduction by the dramatist’s brother, Francisco García Lorca, are five of his “comedies,” in the authorized translations, extensively revised to reflect recent Lorca scholarship and to convey the sparkle, freshness, and magic of the original Spanish. The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife tells of a young beauty married to an old man, a theme that often concerned Lorca. The resolution for the earnest shoemaker, who leaves home and comes back disguised as a puppeteer, is lighthearted, but there is underlying pathos. The Love of Don Perlimplin is again about a girl who weds someone much older, this time a bookish, 18th-century gentleman, who seeks an original but sardonic way out of the situation. According to Lorca himself, “Dona Rosita is the outer gentleness and inner scorching of a girl in Granada who, little by little, turns into that grotesque and moving thing ― an old maid in Spain.”

Genres: Plays, Drama, Spanish Literature, Theatre, Spain

251 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1963

About the author

Born in Fuente Vaqueros, Granada, Spain, June 5 1898; died near Granada, August 19 1936, García Lorca is one of Spain's most deeply appreciated and highly revered poets and dramatists. His murder by the Nationalists at the start of the Spanish civil war brought sudden international fame, accompanied by an excess of political rhetoric which led a later generation to question his merits; after the inevitable slump, his reputation has recovered (largely with a shift in interest to the less obvious works). He must now be bracketed with Machado as one of the two greatest poets Spain has produced in the 20th century, and he is certainly Spain's greatest dramatist since the Golden Age.

Reviews

[Kyriakos Sorokkou]

Ο μεγάλος (ας μην το αρνηθούμε) Γκαρσία Λόρκα έγραψε 15 θεατρικά και ολοκλήρωσε 13. Το πρώτο (Χριστός: Μια θρησκευτική τραγωδία | 1917) έμεινε ατέλειωτο για λόγο τον οποίο προσωπικά δεν γνωρίζω και το τελευταίο (Όνειρα της ξαδέρφης μου Αουρέλια | 1936) έμεινε ατέλειωτο λόγω του ότι ο Λόρκα δολοφονήθηκε και δεν πρόλαβε να το ολοκληρώσει.
Από τα 13 εναπομείναντα διάβασα τα 8: Πέντε απ' αυτή την έκδοση και άλλα απ' αυτή την έκδοση. Μου μένουν άλλα 5 τα οποία είναι διάσπαρτα σε διάφορες εκδόσεις.

Αυτή εδώ η έκδοση περιέχει τα 4 πρώτα θεατρικά του Λόρκα που έγραψε μεταξύ 1919-1928. Εξαίρεση αποτελεί η Δόνα Ροσίτα το οποία γράφτηκε το 1935. Και τα 5 θεατρικά έχουν ένα πιο ελαφρύ και λιγότερο τραγικό τόνο που όμως δεν σημαίνει ότι είναι καθαρά κωμωδίες. Σε αντίθεση με τις 3 μεγάλες τραγωδίες της ισπανικής υπαίθρου, εδώ έχουμε στοιχεία σουρεαλισμού, κουκλοθέατρου, Κομέντια ντελ άρτε, και του γκροτέσκο.

Τα μάγια της πεταλούδας (1919)
Πρώτο ολοκληρωμένο θεατρικό του Λόρκα με χαρακτήρες έντομα (σκαθάρια, σκορπιούς, πεταλούδες). Έντονο το σουρεαλιστικό και ποιητικό στοιχείο.

Οι Φασουλήδες του Κατσιπόρα (1922-25)
Εδώ ο Λόρκα δεν διευκρινίζει εάν οι χαρακτήρες είναι κούκλες που συμπεριφέρονται ως άνθρωποι ή άνθρωποι που συμπεριφέρονται ως κούκλες. Βλέπουμε μια το ένα μια το άλλο.

Η θαυμαστή μπαλωματού (1926-30)
Θυμίζει λίγο από το Ημέρωμα της στρίγγλας του Σαίξπηρ. Πάλι δεν κατάλαβα αν ήταν κουκλοθέατρο ή κανονικό θέατρο με ανθρώπους.

Ο Έρωτας του Δον Μπερλιμπλίν και της Ροσίτα στον κήπο (1928)
Σύντομο θεατρικό το οποίο θυμίζει λίγο από Κομέντια ντελ άρτε και λίγο από ιστορία βγαλμένη από παραμύθι (ξωτικά, φαντασία, και υπερβολή).

Δόνια Ροσίτα η γεροντοκόρη (1935)
Αυτό το πιο όψιμο θεατρικό συμπεριλαμβάνεται και στην έκδοση του Oxford World Classics και θα πω περισσότερα εκεί.

Συνολικά αυτή η πρώτη μου επαφή με τα πρώτα και πιο άγνωστα θεατρικά του Λόρκα ήταν αρκετά ενδιαφέρουσα και ικανοποιητική και μπορώ να πω ότι τώρα μπαίνω στον πειρασμό να βρω και να διαβάσω τα υπόλοιπα, κι αν δεν τα βρω στ' αγγλικά θα τα πάρω στα Ισπανικά, τίποτα δε με σταματά, nada!

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't remember offhand the date I saw the Hippocket Theater in Fort Worth perform the play, The Butterfly's Evil Spell, but it was one of the better productions they've done. So much passion and heartbreak conveyed through bugs that it squirmed into my heart and created a longing inside me. I wanted to hold the play, read the words for myself, have them to cherish whenever the longing was too strong.

So I searched for a copy of the play, which I found years later in this volume. It's been probably three years since I bought the book yet had not read the works within. The costumes and set designs of the play have stayed with me all this time, so rather than begin on the first pages (including the introduction) I jumped straight to the final play, the one I saw years before. It was a beautiful as I remembered – better, because it was mine to keep.

Let me summarize the story of this play – in a field of beetles where poetry is present yet mocked and still there is love unrequited, an injured butterfly falls to the ground and it attended upon by those benevolent beetles. The hero of the play, Poet Beetle, falls in love with the butterfly, who thinks her life is over because she can no longer fly. The butterfly breaks the heart of this beetle when he tries to express his love for her as she tries to flee – then everything stops!

I remember this scene in at the Hippocket – the Poet Beetle circling the Butterfly as she beat her gossamer wings, frantic to escape, the lights flashing, the drums growing louder, then everything stopping. Try as I may, I cannot remember what happened after that. I am desperate now, you see, because according to the introduction, the original play ending is long gone – lost forever after the murder of Lorca. It's a shame, especially since the other four plays in this collection are nothing in comparison.

The other plays – "The Billy-Club Puppets", "The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife", "The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden", "Dona Rosita, the Spinster" – lacked the charm and innocence of the "Butterfly". Some didn't even make sense to me – like the "Billy-Club Puppets", when Don Cristobita was discovered to be a giant puppet with a wooden head. Or like in the Shoemaker's play – there seems to be jump to a moral that had no lead up; she was mean to him, he was a badgered husband. He leaves her, she suddenly misses him, he returns as a puppeteer to learn her true feelings. "Don Perlimplín" is a rehashing of the "Shoemaker's Wife", and by the time I reached "Dona Rosita" I had completely lost interest. It's a shame, too, because I really did love that production of "El Maleficio de la Mariposa." I would not call it a comedy by any means, not even a tragicomedy.
"In 1936, García Lorca was staying at Callejones de García, his country home, at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was arrested by Franquist soldiers, and on the 17th or 18th of August, after a few days in jail, soldiers took García Lorca to "visit" his brother-in-law, Manuel Fernandez Montesinos, the Socialist ex-mayor of Granada whom the soldiers had murdered and dragged through the streets. When they arrived at the cemetery, the soldiers forced García Lorca from the car. They struck him with the butts of their rifles and riddled his body with bullets. His books were burned in Granada's Plaza del Carmen and were soon banned from Franco's Spain. To this day, no one knows where the body of Federico García Lorca rests." – Poets.org

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wonderful collection of Lorca plays includes five comedies and 'tragi-comedies'. They range from a farcical puppet theater play to fantasy to a modernistic play about beetles that unfortunately is missing its ending. All the plays exhibit a prose style informed by and imbued with the poetry of Lorca. The youthful effort, 'The Butterfly's Evil Spell, where he tries (unsuccessfully) to portray a poet beetle who desires to become a butterfly is interesting in the direction it suggests for the young poet. Later works like "The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife" which he was developing during his stay in New York explore the relation between fantasy and reality. This theme which can be traced back to Cervantes is augmented by Lorca with his use of the vivid colors of Andalusian folklore. The quality of these plays is high and they should be of interest to fans of Lorca and others willing to explore beyond his poetry.

[Katy]

Thia is the first play I read (apart from the ones at school) and I managed to finish the first one only . Not exactly sure how I felt about the play or the writing so no ratings .

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Death disguises itself as Love."

Lorca's plays are as interesting as Lorca himself is. This is the only publication that I could find containing “The Butterfly's Evil Spell”. I have seen two versions of the play and cannot wait for another. However, just reading this play will being images of life it is self to you and you can visualize what it would be like as a beetle-poet in love with a butterfly.

You will find yourself quoting many lines.

[Richard Jespers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky little plays tinged with Lorca's poetic touch and well worth the time.