Description
This volume brings together two acclaimed verbatim plays, Raúl Quirós Molina’s The Bread and the Salt and Jordi Casanovas’ Jauría, published in English-language translations for the first time. Translators William Gregory and Tim Gutteridge offer reflections on the process of translating plays composed entirely of criminal trial transcripts. Accompanying essays by Chris Bambery, Maria M. Delgado, Tony Fisher and Sarah Wright reflect on Spain’s transition to democracy, and on the plays’ interventions in discussions on justice, the law and the legacy of the Franco dictatorship, showing how the stage has opened public fora for debating judicial verdicts that have polarized civil society.
Spanish Verbatim Theatre: Putting Justice on Trial introduces to English readers two recent, acclaimed and necessary plays that – through courtroom transcripts – stage Spain’s conflicted relationship with its political, social and judicial past and present. This richly nuanced edition frames the plays with thoughtful reflections on contemporary Spanish democracy and the judiciary, theatre as a political space, the complexities in translating ‘verbatim theatre’ and our individual and collective responsibilities as spectators and auditors when, as Maria M. Delgado writes, ‘the law itself … is on trial’.
JEAN GRAHAM-JONES, Professor Emerita, The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA
Some of the most powerful theatre in Spain of recent years has galvanized audiences by reflecting critically on the country’s transition to democracy and the legacy of Franco’s long dictatorship in the present day. As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the dictator’s death, the essays and verbatim plays featured in this volume provide an exemplary primer for anyone wanting to better understand contemporary Spanish society as well as constituting a timely intervention in broader debates on memory, justice, gender and the law. Highly recommended.
DUNCAN WHEELER, Professor and Chair of Spanish Studies, University of Leeds, UK
