Performing Shakespeare in a Conflicting Cultural Context: Othello in Francoist Spain

Abstract

The present article reviews the stage history of Othello in Spain and, in particular, it focuses on two performances of the play staged at the Español theatre during Franco’s dictatorship, in 1944 and 1971 respectively. Othello was one of the Shakespearean plays programmed by the regime to give cultural prestige to the “national” theatre. By comparing both productions, this paper explores how the performance of Othello evolved during the dictatorship. Furthermore, it shows how the repressive force of state censorship was exerted to promote certain theatrical conventions and to prevent theatre directors and translators from offering new readings and updatings of the plays, in the case of Othello, for almost thirty years.