The Comedia in English: Translation and Performance (Tamesis, 2008) is the latest book of Associate Professor Donald R. Larson

The plays of the Spanish Golden Age, know collectively as the Comedia, are widely acknowledged to constitute one of the world’s pre-eminent bodies of theatrical literature. Up until recently, however, they appeared only infrequently on stages in English-speaking countries. There are many reasons for this, but one of the most consequential, undoubtedly, was the lack of truly playable translations. That absence began to be remedied in the final decades of the twentieth century, and the result was a notable increase in important productions through which audiences could discover the riches of this extraordinary theatre.

The bringing of Spanish seventeenth-century verse plays to the contemporary
English-speaking stage involves a number of fundamental questions. Are verse translations preferable to prose, and if so, what kind of verse? To what degree should translations aim to be “faithful”? Which kinds of plays “work,” and which do not? Which values and customs of the past present no difficulties for contemporary audiences, and which need to be decoded in performance? Which kinds of staging are suitable, and which are not? To what degree, if any, should one aim for “authenticity” in staging? And so on.

In this volume, co-edited with Susan Paun de García of Denison University a distinguished group of translators, directors, and scholars explores these and related questions in illuminating and thought-provoking essays.