Federico García Lorca’s ‘impossible’ theatre staged

Abstract

This study explores the relatively unknown area of Federico García Lorca’s theatre work which he himself termed ‘impossible’ and ‘unperformable’. With the director’s task of preproduction research in mind, the study examines biographical research as well as focusing discussion on Lorca’s experimentation – as playwright and director – with different artistic styles and techniques seen as ground-breaking in his own time which pre-empted much modern theatre practice. Analysis of primary sources provides a widespread overview of Lorca’s dramatic work: his better-known plays, ‘impossible’ plays, dramatic dialogues and fragments of incomplete pieces as well as interviews and speeches.
Key sources include the theories and ideas of professional directors (most prominently Lluís Pasqual) and scholars of Spanish theatre (especially Maria M. Delgado and Gwynne Edwards) as well as biographers (particularly Leslie Stainton).
Principally concerned with the challenges presented to modern theatre-makers and the possibilities and guides for directors tackling these plays, the study concludes with reflection on the production of An Impossible Dream of Life which was composed from Lorca’s The Dream of Life and extracts from his other works to make up the practice-based component of this research project.