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placed a ban on Lorca's work that was not rescinded until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)
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