Prologue: Catalogue of Productions

Spain’s Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico (CNTC) came into being in 1986 through the initiative of Adolfo Marsillach (1928–2002), a Catalan director and actor known for his intelligently conceived, if challenging, stagings. Marsillach was artistic director of the company in two phases, from 1986–1989, and from 1992–1997. The following productions of Tirso de Molina plays, as staged by the CNTC in Spain and by professional (if not national) theater companies in England, reveal a pattern, as indicated by their respective asterisks:

CNTC, MADRID: El burlador de Sevilla [The Trickster of Seville]* (1988); El vergonzoso en palacio [The Bashful Man at Court]** (1989); Don Gil de las calzas verdes [Don Gil of the Green Breeches]*** (1994); La venganza de Tamar [Tamar’s Revenge] **** (1997); El burlador de Sevilla* (2003); La celosa de sí misma [Jealous of Herself] (2003); Don Gil de las calzas verdes*** (2006); El condenado por desconfiado [Damned for Despair]***** (2010); El burlador de Sevilla* (2017–2018); El vergonzoso en palacio** (2020–2021); El burlador de Sevilla* (2022).

ENGLAND: The Last Days of Don Juan* (Royal Shakespeare Company [RSC], 1990); Don Gil of the Green Breeches*** (Gate Theatre, London, 1990); Damned for Despair***** (Gate Theatre, London, 1991); Tamar’s Revenge**** (RSC, 2004); Damned by Despair***** (Royal National Theatre, London, 2012); Don Gil of the Green Breeches*** (Arcola Theatre, Bath, 2014).

It is noteworthy that virtually the same plays were produced in both countries, with only two exceptions. Ideally, an attempt would be made to contextualize all (or some) of the productions cited above, answering the question “Why this play now?” and following Peter Brook’s “conviction that this play must be done today” (1968: 3). Also studied would be the ways in which directorial, design, and acting choices enabled ingenious and/or aberrant performance readings of Tirso’s playtexts. Given the exigencies of space, and this author’s aversion to formulaic overviews (of theater, in this case), only two Tirsian playtexts of different genres will be discussed here: (1) El vergonzoso en palacio (1621), directed by Marsillach (1989); and (2) El condenado por desconfiado (published 1635?) / Damned by Despair, directed by Carlos Aladro (2010), in a version by Yolanda Pallín; and by Bijan Sheibani (2012), in a version adapted by Frank McGuinness from a literal translation into English.