Shakespeare and the Continental Avant-Garde through García Lorca’s El público (1930)

Abstract

El público (The Public) emerged in the context of Federico Garcia Lorca’s productive trip to America (1929–30). Probably conceived in New York, then written primarily in Cuba, and completed in Spain in the summer of 1930, this experimental play, crafted by Lorca through the theatrical languages of the avant-garde, constructs an elusive exploration of patriarchy and homophobia. The influence of Pirandello, Jarry and the Surrealists is palpable in what constituted a radical turn in Lorca’s dramatic style, yet it is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that provided Lorca with a visible intertext through which to voice his challenge to the boundaries of gender identity and his critique of socially-established gender roles and sexual practices in the 1930s. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet will be performed as a transgressively innovatory piece of drama by the metatheatrical characters at the end of El público. However, before postulating a new conception of its action, character, dialogue and visuals, Romeo and Juliet is first presented at the beginning of the play as an example of the fossilization of theatre. Lorca’s experimental work first treats Shakespeare as an emblem of outdated drama, and then transforms one of his works into a source for theatrical renewal.