Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Londres

This Wednesday 1st of November is opening night for The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden, one of the most poetic plays by Federico García Lorca.

A gem of Spanish theatre repertoire that can be seen in both English and Spanish every night in a new and surprising production directed by the Cervantes Theatre Artistic Director Paula Paz.

From 1st until 25^th November, for four weeks only, first act in Spanish with English surtitles and second act in English. You can’t miss this production!

Did you know that Don Perlimplín was first performed in the UK in 1945 right after World War II being one of the first Lorca texts to be performed outside of Spain? It was seen as a success, running for roughly 4 years but it also scandalised the bourgeois audience and was authorised but heavily censored.

Joan Littlewood said in 1945 «Lorca’s plays deal with the terrible barrier between the sexes which existed in his country and is perhaps not unknown here. … Surely the first impact of any work of art is disturbing and even destructive: we must risk this ‘unpleasantness’ if our culture is not to atrophy.»

*Research by Professor María Bastianes

Paula Paz releases this potential in Cervantes Theatre’s production of Don Perlimplín which sees the text unleashed whilst sticking true to Lorca’s vision.