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Two short plays gathered in a same book by the Spanish
poet, playwright and novelist Ramon del Valle Inclan at the end of the
XIXth century. Avarice, lust and death are its common themes even if
they are treated on very different modes aesthetically. Valle Inclan
paints a portrait of human misery in an archaic and feudal society and
he denounces the submission of mankind in a rural drama and tragedy
combined together.
These two plays illustrate the esperpento, an expressionist dramatic
genre invented and developed by the author whose aim is to give a
grotesque picture of reality and Spanish civilization thanks to the
distortion of language and the use of typical characters. Seen through a
distorting mirror, beautiful becomes grotesque and the rural world
appears violent, overwhelmed with poverty and peopled with disturbing
and defective characters. That universe suffering from hallucinations
gives their singular tone to these plays.
Ligazon is a play based on lust and avarice. It takes place in
Galicia, a mythical region with its witches and ghosts. A young virgin
has to be sold by her mother to a man from the village but she wants to
keep control on the only thing that belongs to her : her own body. She
then decides to give herself to a passing young man...
La Cabeza del Bautista (The Baptist’s head) takes up Salome’s myth
again but here the kings are bar managers and the queens retired
prostitutes. In the depths of Spain, a foreigner makes an old king sing.
He knows his dark past. The old man’s friend sees he is lost and
ruined. She suggests a macabre plan which will lead them to a tragic
end.
Text : Collective creation
Director : Jordi Forcadas
French version
