Play about gay
Spanish poet canceled amid death threats

A new play about Federico Garcia Lorca, a gay Spanish poet executed during the Spanish civil war, has been canceled amid death threats, Reuters reports.

Lorca Eran Todos (They Were All Lorca) was called off after Spanish writer and actor Pepe Rubianes received death threats from angry political groups. The play deals not only with Lorca's execution but the thousands of other Spaniards put to death by right-wing general Francisco Franco during the 1936-1939 civil war. Spain's civil war remains a very contentious and emotional issue for most Spaniards.

Right-wing groups had vowed to protest the Madrid theater where the performances were to take place. Once the play was canceled, left-wing groups accused the Spanish government of being behind the cancellation.

After Rubianes spoke publicly about the play's subject matter in January, the theater and city officials were bombarded with complaints.

Lorca is a seminal figure in Spanish culture. He was not only a poet, but a playwright, actor, painter, composer, pianist, and part of the Generation of '27, a group of influential, avant-garde artists. The Franco regime placed a ban on Lorca's work that was not rescinded until the 1950s. In the late 1920s Lorca came to the United States and studied at New York's Columbia University, a trip that was said to have influenced him greatly. Although lauded for his poems, plays, and prose, Lorca was subject to depression, partly because of his homosexuality and the pains he went to conceal his orientation.

Today, Lorca is honored with a statue in Madrid's Plaza de Santa Ana. (The Advocate)