The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Plays

Borja Ortiz de Gondra, Blanca Domenech, Sánchez Rodríguez, Vanessa Montfort, Julio Escalada, Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez, William Gregory

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781786825827
• eBook ISBN: 9781786825834
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: British Drama

From a colonial past to a precarious European present, this selection of works by contemporary writers challenges the accepted vision of the Spain to explore the national themes, historical legacies and modern-day concerns of a country of great geographical and cultural diversity.

 A Basque History by Borja Ortiz de Gondra (2017 Max Award, Best Playwright) explores the impact of war, regional and national identity, language and culture on the Basque people of the Iberian north. 

The Sickness of Stone by Blanca Domenech. An idealistic restoration expert clashes with an old-school pragmatist over the best way to acknowledge and heal the wounds of Spain's bloody and oppressive past.

Cuzco by Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez. A Spanish couple travels to Peru to save their relationship, but find themselves confronted by post-colonial guilt, depression and disconnectedness.

The Greyhound by Vanessa Montfort. This comic tale of a homeless greyhound explores the clash between the EU's prosperous north and the austerity-stricken Mediterranean.  

On The Edge by Julio Escalada explores the little-known underworlds of Spain's North African territories where the fight for survival leads to prejudice, volatility and violence.

Borja Ortiz de Gondra

A BASQUE HISTORY (THE GONDRAS)

Los Gondra (Una historia vasca)

Borja Ortiz de Gondra was born in Bilbao in 1965. After training as a director in Madrid, he moved to Paris and worked as an assistant director in the major public theatres of France. Years later he returned to Spain and became a renowned playwright, winning several awards including the Marqués de Bradomín and Calderón de la Barca prizes.

His first play was produced by the Centro Dramático Nacional (the National Theatre of Spain) in 1999. Since then his work has continually been produced in the major theatres of Spain and Latin America. Many of his works have been translated into German, Czech, Finnish, French, Italian or Portuguese, among them Duda razonable, Memento mori, El barbero de Picasso and Dedos (vodevil negro).

He currently divides his time between Madrid and New York, and has also become a well-known adaptor and translator of the classical Spanish repertoire or of major English-language authors such as Eugene O’Neill, Joe Orton and Martin Crimp.

He has also taught playwriting at the Teatro Cuarta Pared, Madrid, where many of Spain’s emerging playwrights were trained.

In 2018, A Basque History won the award for Best Playwright at the Max Awards, Spain’s annual national theatre industry awards.

Titles in English

Duda razonable - Reasonable Doubt

El barbero de Picasso - Picasso’s Barber

Dedos (vodevil negro) - Fingers (Noir Vaudeville)

This English translation of Los Gondra was made possible thanks to the support of the Fundación SGAE (the foundation of the Spanish society of authors): www.fundacionsgae.org

The writer wishes to thank Karlos Cid Abasolo and Koldo Zuazo for their enormous contribution in translating the passages of the play written in Basque¹.

And also Javier Cillero, Iñaki Gaminde and Isabel Gondra, for the linguistic suggestions they made.

A Basque History (The Gondras) premiered at the Sala Francisco Nieva at the Teatro Valle-Inclán, Madrid, on 18 January 2017, produced by the Centro Dramático Nacional (the National Theatre of Spain).

CAST (in alphabetical order): Marcial Álvarez, Sonsoles Benedicto, María Hervás, Iker Lastra, Francisco Ortiz, Borja Ortiz de Gondra, Juan Pastor Millet, Pepa Pedroche, Victoria Salvador, Cecilia Solaguren, José Tomé

Director: Josep Maria Mestres

Design: Clara Notari

Costume: Gabriela Salaverri Solana

Lighting: Juanjo Llorens

Movement and Choreography: Jon Maya Sein

Video: Álvaro Luna

Original Music: Iñaki Salvador

Basque Language Coach: Karlos Cid Abasolo

Vocal Coach: David Peralto

Assistant Director: Fran Guinot

Poster Design: ByG / Isidro Ferrer

Rehearsal Photography: marcosGpunto

Casting

The play is conceived for a cast of five male and five female actors, with the parts distributed throughout the periods in the play according to the table below. When one character appears in more than one period, they will be played by a different actor in each.

1 Translator’s note on the use of the Basque language.

In the original Spanish version of Los Gondra, a proportion of the play is written in Basque, the language of the region where the play is set. Unlike the other co-official languages of Spain’s autonomous regions, Catalan and Galician, Basque is entirely unrelated to Spanish (Castilian). In fact it is unrelated to any other language in the world.

For the premiere in Madrid at the Centro Dramático Nacional (the National Theatre of Spain), the amount of Basque spoken on stage was significant...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• A Basque History
• The Sickness of Stone
• Cuzco
• The Greyhound
• On the Edge