‘All the World's a Stage’: El gran teatro del mundo in Production on the Spanish Stage and in Translation on the English Stage (1927–2013)

Abstract

The Hofmannsthal/Reinhardt German adaptation of El gran teatro del mundo (Salzburg, 1922) inaugurated the modern revival of Calderón's auto sacramental, and became the touchstone for all subsequent productions of the work. Its allegorical nature, the metatheatrical possibilies of the World/Stage trope, the production values of the Baroque spectacle as total-art-work attracted modern directors. Questions regarding enhancement of the spectacular text and adaptation of the theological moral for a modern audience have been crucial. The first Spanish production by Gallego Burín (Granada, 1927) and productions by Rivas Cherif (Madrid, 1930 and Penal de Dueso, 1943) respected Calderón's text set in a vanguard design. The auto became a tool of National-Catholic propaganda in Franco's Spain. Tamayo's super-production of the sacred text (1998) represented Catholic Spain to the Vatican in the millennium. Saura (Madrid, 2013) produced a disrespectful deconstruction of Calderón reducing the world to the professional theatre stage. The first English production (Bristol, 1968), translated and directed by Brandt, remained faithful to the spirit and letter of Calderón. The Medieval Players' production (1984) of Adrian Mitchell's adaptation was a fairground spectacle. Gaskill's production (London, 2009) of Mitchell's text attempted contemporary relevance with a multi-ethnic cast. Non National-Catholic directors have produced the auto as a lesson in theatre history, not a lesson in outdated moral theology.

Key words:

• El gran teatro del mundo
• Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Auto sacramental
• Allegory
• Metatheatre
• Moral theology
• Theatre history
• National-Catholic propaganda

Notes

1 Henry W. Sullivan, Calderón in the German Lands and the Low Countries: His Reception and Influence, 1654–1980 (Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 1983), 180.

2 Sullivan, Calderón in the German Lands, 348. He lists other German productions of this favourite auto from 1919 to 1942 (360).

3 Antonio Regalado, Calderón: los orígenes de la modernidad en la España del Siglo de Oro, 2 vols (Barcelona: Destino, 1985), traces the culmination of Schlegel's concept in Hofmannsthal's production (II, 29).

4 See J. L. Styan, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice, 3 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 1981), III, 69. Agustín Muñoz-Alonso López, ‘El modelo calderoniano en el contexto de la renovación teatral del primer tercio del siglo veinte’, Teatro, 20 (2004), 69–86 (pp. 74–77), indicates the importance of Enrique Díez-Canedo's articles in España (1922), publicizing Salzburg.

5 See Antonio Gallego Morell, ‘Resurrección de los autos sacramentales en Granada en 1927′, in Calderón. Actas del ‘Congreso Internacional sobre Calderón y el teatro español del Siglo de Oro’, ed. Luciano García Lorenzo, 3 vols (Madrid: CSIC, 1983), III, 1411–20.

6 Lorca sent a postcard from Figueras (dated May 1927 and signed by Dalí) expressing his approval of the project; see Antonio Gallego Morell, García Lorca: cartas, postales, poemas y dibujos (Madrid: Editorial Moneda y Crédito, 1968), 124.

7 See Luis Sáenz de la Calzada, La Barraca: teatro universitario, ed. Jorge de Persia (Madrid: Publicaciones de la Residencia de Estudiantes, 1998), 65–80.

8 Gallego Morell, ‘Resurrección de los autos sacramentales en Granada’, 1414; he cites (1418) T. S. Beardsley, ‘Manuel de Falla's Score for Calderón's Gran teatro del mundo: The Autograph Manuscript’, Kentucky Romance Quarterly, 16:1 (1969) 63–74 (not seen).

9 Juan Aguilera Sastre & Manuel Aznar Soler, Cipriano Rivas Cherif y el teatro español de su época (1891–1967) (Madrid: Publicaciones de la Asociación de Directores de Escena de España, 2000), 176 (photographs opposite p. 190).

10 Aguilera Sastre & Aznar Soler, Cipriano Rivas Cherif, 374–82. Duncan Wheeler, ‘The Performance History of Golden-Age Drama in Spain (1939–2006)’, Bulletin of the Comediantes, 60:2 (2008), 119–55 (p. 122) records a student performance of El gran teatro del mundo to entertain Franco during a visit to Seville in 1943. (1943 was celebrated as the millennium of the founding of Castile.)

11 I am grateful to J. Antonio Ruiz, Cronista de la Villa, for the photocopy.

12 Luis Escobar, En cuerpo y alma: memorias (Madrid: Ediciones Temas de Hoy, 2000), 116. When the auto was performed in front of the cathedral in Santiago to celebrate the national Patron Saint's feast day, the German ambassador's wife told Escobar his production was better than Reinhardt's in Salzburg.

13 For Tamayo's productions and a complete list of productions of El gran teatro del mundo up to 1999, see Luciano García Lorenzo & Manuel Muñoz Carabantes, ‘El teatro de Calderón en la escena española (1939–1999)’, in Calderón 1600–1681: Quatercentenary Studies in Memory of John E. Varey, ed., with an intro., by Ann L. Mackenzie, BHS, LXXVII:1 (2000), 421–33 (pp. 424–25).

14 Included in a publicity pack with press cuttings and programmes which the gerenta of the Teatro de Bellas Artes very generously gave me in December 2001.

15 Juan Vicente Boo, ‘El Vaticano abre sus puertas a Calderón de la mano de Tamayo’ (newspaper and date not included), publicity pack, Teatro de Bellas Artes.

16 García de la Concha's programme note was published as the leading article in ABC, 25 June 2000.

17 ABC, 16 November 2000.

18 I am grateful to Duncan Wheeler for drawing my attention to this production and for lending me a copy of Teatro Corsario: veinticinco años ([Valladolid]: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 2007); see El gran teatro del mundo, 60–66 (photographs 226–29).

19 For Saura's intentions and the reactions of actors, see press previews, e.g. Rosana Torres, ‘La rebelión de Carlos Saura’, El País, 27 March 2013, <http://cultura.el país.com/2013/03/27/actualidad> (accessed 11 November 2013).

20 See Jerónimo López Mozo, ‘El gran teatro del mundo: Calderón atenuado’, MadridTeatro, 9 April 2013, <http://www.madridteatro.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3090:el-gran-teatro-del-mundo-calderonsauracritica&catid=262:crit2013&Itemid=237> (accessed 11 November 2013).

21 See José Catalán Deus, ‘Se estrella Carlos Saura ante el gran teatro del mundo. El auto sacramental de Calderón de la Barca en version de aficionados’, Periodista Digital, 7 April 2013, <http://www.periodistadigital.com/guiacultural/ocio-y-cultura/2013/04/07/se-estrella-carlos-saura-ante-el-gran-teatro-del-mundo-calderon-teatro.shtml> (accessed 11 November 2013).

22 Olga Margallo & Antonio Muñoz de Mesa, publicity note for Almagro Fundación Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico, <http://www.festivaldealmagro.com/obra_actual.php?id=71actual> (accessed 4 February 2014).

23 See María Esther Beltrán Martínez, ‘Calderón de la Barca conquista a nuevas generaciones con otro gran teatro del mundo’, El Sol de Méjico, 24 January 2014, <http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n3268570.htm> (accessed 7 October 2015).

24 Pedro Calderón de la Barca, The Great Stage of the World, trans., with an intro., by George W. Brandt (Manchester: Manchester U. P., 1976) (translation based on Valbuena Prat's Clásicos Castellanos edition, used in Granada in 1927). Remarks on Brandt's opinions and practice refer to his ‘Introduction’ (vii–xxii) and to a telephone interview (25 September 1995), for which I am very grateful.

25 Following the model of Denis MacCarthy in his translation of other autos in Mysteries of the Eucharist (Dublin: James Duffy, 1867).

26 The Great Theatre of the World, in Three Plays by Calderón, trans., with an intro., by Adrian Mitchell (Bristol: Absolute Classics, 1990). Mitchell's adaptation of The Mayor of Zalamea was produced by the National Theatre (1981) and his co-adaptation with John Barton of Life's a Dream by the Royal Shakespeare Company (1983).

27 I was very grateful to Carl Heap, their artistic director, for information given in telephone interviews (14 and 27 September 1995) and for sending me his tour diary.

28 Mitchell, ‘Introduction’, in Three Plays by Calderón, 5–6 (p. 6).

29 The musical director Andrew Watt had ‘discovered’ early Italian carnival music. The music here was taken from the Hesperion recording of Golden Age Spanish Classical Music (1547–1616).

30 Press reviews quoted in publicity puffs all referred to the Medieval Players’ production: ‘A blazing masterpiece performed in a virtuoso performance’ (The Times), ‘A sheer delight’ (The New Statesman), ‘Adrian Mitchell's translation into various verse forms is spectacular’ (The Spectator).

31 Letter, 9 May 2007. I am grateful to Bill Gaskill for sending me copies of his correspondence with Mitchell (in a letter, 22 February 2010); his opinions come from this correspondence and the letter to me.

32 ‘The Great Theatre of the World’, 27 July 2007, <http://seaninthestalls.blogspot.co.uk/2007/07/review-great-theatre-of-world.html> (accessed 24 September 2009).

33 ‘The Great Theatre of the World’, The Observer, 27 July 2007, <http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/jul/29/theatre1> (accessed 24 September 2009).

34 ‘The Great Theatre of the World’, The Guardian, 16 July 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2007/jul/16/theatre3> (accessed 24 September 2009).

* Disclosure Statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.