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Torquemada in the Theatre: A Glance at Government Censorship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Patricia W. O'Connor
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Extract

Although the Spanish Inquisition ceased to function formally in 1834, the spirit that made this institution a metaphor for oppression continues to exist, even if in less dramatic fashion. In the broad sense, “inquisition” may mean any strict or arbitrary suppression of persons and ideas considered unorthodox—and consequently dangerous—to the ruling powers. Spain maintains an active force for its current brand of orthodoxy and, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, pays dearly for that luxury by being a fourth-rate power politically and no power at all intellectually. Even sympathetic but somewhat condescending Hispanists wonder if contemporary Spanish writers can produce anything of merit in this doctrinaire and puritanical atmosphere. Others, myself among them, believe that several Spanish writers active today would enjoy international prestige were not Spain ignored or shunned due to its present form of government. Despite discrimination from abroad and the lingering shadow of Torquemada at home, a tough breed of Spanish writers, hardened by adversity, manages to write, publish, and even perform. Since theatre is the art form that relies most heavily on the cultural condition of the people, the development of postwar drama particularly has been hampered. Moreover, theatre is the only form still under the yoke of prior censorship.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , November 1973 , pp. 33 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1973

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References

Notes

1 Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition (London, 1965), p. 282Google Scholar. The Spanish Inquisition was introduced into Spain in 1237. Tomás de Torquemada, its most notable Grand Inquisitor, was a Dominican monk in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella.

2 An abbreviated version of this article was read at the national convention of the Modern Languages Association in New York, December, 1972.

3 See Benjamin Welles' chapter on censorship in Spain: The Gentle Anarchy (New York, 1965), pp. 77–103Google Scholar.

4 La censura de cine [y teatro] en España (Madrid, 1963), p. 11Google Scholar. (All translations are mine.)

5 Ibid., p. 12.

6 Ibid., pp. 13–15.

7 Ibid., p. 14. “Prohibited will be all that in any way goes against: (a) The Catholic Church, its dogma, its ethics, its form of worship. (b) The fundamental principles of the State, its national dignity and its interior and exterior security. (c) The person of the Chief of State.”

8 See: “Government Censorship in the Contemporary Spanish Theatre,” Educational Theatre Journal, 18 (1965), 17–24Google Scholar; “Censorship at Work,” Spain Today, 6 (1966), 443–449Google Scholar; “Censorship in the Contemporary Spanish Theatre and Antonio Buero Vallejo,” Hispania, 52 (1969), 59–63Google Scholar; “A Glance at Censorship in Franco's Spain,” University of South Florida Language Quarterly, 10 (1972), 54–56Google Scholar; “Premio Lope de Vega 1969: A Devious form of Censorship?” Hispanófila, 44 (1972), 59–63Google Scholar.

9 The Dialogues of Plato, trans. Jowett, , ed. Koplan, J. D. (New York, 1950), p. 25Google Scholar. “I am that gadfly which God has attached to the State, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. You will not easily find another like me, and, therefore, I would advise you to spare me.”

10 For the text of Castañuela, see Primer Acto, No. 125 (October 1970), pp. 46–60.

11 Wie den herrn Mockinpott das Leiden ausgetrieden wird (How Suffering is driven out of Mr. Mockinpott), 1968Google Scholar.

12 For the text of El retablo del flautista, see Yorick, No. 43 (September 1970Google Scholar), 22–53.

13 Millán Astray, a Nationalist hero in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was handicapped by several physical infirmities resulting from battle wounds. Primo Acto, No. 136 (September 1971Google Scholar), 4, quotes the former subdirector general de teatros, Antolin Santiago y Juárez, as commenting on the closing in this fashion: “La clase militar está representada por una vergonzosa caricatura del glorioso Millán Astray. Si esto no es suficiente para prohibir una obra tú me dirás que lo es.” (” The army is represented by a shameful caricature of our glorious Millán Astray. If that isn't enough to prohibit a work, I don't know what is.”)

14 The “green-list” is the Inquisition's term for “black-list.”

15 Spanish journalists have nicknamed Sánchez Bella “Madre” (“Mother”), after the character of “The Avengers” (T.V. series) with whom he has ideological and physical similarities. For more about Sánchez Bella, see Romero, Emilio, Arco, Manuel del and de Miguel, Amando, eds., Los 90 ministros de Franco (Barcelona, 1971), pp. 321–325Google Scholar.

16 For more about Arrabal and the Spanish text of Los dos verdugos, see Teatro: Fernando Arrabal, ed. Monleón, Jose (Madrid, 1968Google Scholar). Also see Arrabal, Fernando, Lettre au général Franco (Paris, 1972)Google Scholar.

17 Monleón, Jose, Treinta años de teatro de la derecha (Barcelona, 1971), p. 112Google Scholar.

18 “In this period of resurgent fascism, I do not authorize the performance of Los dos verdugos.” Several of my friends who saw the wire (Nuria Espert, Armando Moreno, Vicente Romero) reported the text to me with some variation in arrangement of words.

19 See also Vallejo's, Buero preface to Madre coraje, “Colección teatro,” No. 560X (Madrid, 1967)Google Scholar.

20 Vanhecke, Charles, “La censure et ses brêches,” Le Monde, 30 (12 1971), 16Google Scholar.

21 For more information about this particular production, see Primer Acto, No. 137 (October 1971)Google Scholar, pp. 14–21.

22 The Spanish newspaper published in New York, España Libre, 35, No. 3 (05–06 1972), 1Google Scholar, states also that the one-hundred-fifty theatre professionals who verbally protested the arrest and consequent theatrical closing were violently ousted from the public building by armed police.

23 For more about this group of writers, see George Wellwarth's three books: The Theatre of Protest and Paradox (New York, 1971)Google Scholar; Spanish Underground Theater (University Park and London, 1972)Google Scholar; and New Wave of Spanish Drama (New York, 1970)Google Scholar. The last volume includes seven “underground” plays translated into English and an introductory chapter.

24 La máquina de pedir, El asno and La ciencia de birlibirloque are published in Spain by Siglo, XXI, 1971Google Scholar. Other plays by Ruibal are available through Escelicer in Madrid, and several English translations of his plays have appeared in Modern International Drama (Theatre Department, SUNY, Binghamton, N.Y.)Google Scholar. Ruibal has been living in New York since fall 1971 and has assisted in the professional staging there of several of his plays. He also has lectured at universities throughout the country and has served as visiting professor at N.Y.U. and SUNY at Buffalo.

25 El carro del teatro is published in Teatro dificil, “Colección teatro, No. 690 (Madrid, 1971)Google Scholar.

26 The text of Los niños is published in Primer Acto, No. 121 (June 1970), 23–51Google Scholar.

27 For more about this closing, see my article, “Premio Lope de Vega: A Devious Form of Censorship?” Mentioned in n. 8.

28 See “Alfonso Sastre no acepta el ‘posibilismo’” Insula, 15, No. 164 (1966), 27Google Scholar.

29 Censorship of public spectacles is much more restrictive than censorship of literary publications. Many plays forbidden for performance are available in print. The 1966 press law lifted prior censorship on publishing but continues to require the deposit of copies of every publication at the Ministry of Information before distribution or sale (newspapers one hour before they are issued; pamphlets and books one day for each fifty pages or fraction thereof) and holds publishers responsible and subject to fines for objectionable material.

30 DeCoster, Cyrus C. has translated Escuadra hacia la muerte, published in Player's Magazine, 38 (11 1961), 57–68Google Scholar. For more information on Sastre, see Pronko, Leonard C., “The Revolutionary Theatre of Alfonso Sastre,” Tulane Drama Review, 5 (12 1960), 111–120CrossRefGoogle Scholar; DeCoster, Cyrus, “Alfonso Sastre,” in Tulane Drama Review, 5 (12 1960), 121–132CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 For more information on Muñiz plus the text of El tintero and other plays, see Teatro: Carlos Muñiz, ed. Monleón, Jose (Madrid, 1963)Google Scholar.

32 For more information on Lauro Olmo as well as the texts of La camisa and El cuarto poder, see Teatro: Lauro Olmo, ed. Monleón, Jose (Madrid, 1970)Google Scholar.