Ramón del Valle-Inclán:  SAVAGE ACTS:  FOUR PLAYS (Ligazón, La rosa de papel, La cabeza del Bautista, Sacrilegio).
    Translated by Robert Lima.  1993.

• Little staged during his lifetime, today Valle-Inclán (1866-1936) is considered by many to be among Europe's greatest dramatists of the twentieth century.  In recent years, his major plays have been given innovative stagings in Spain and elsewhere, including the Théatre de Europe and the Théatre National de la Colline in Paris.  These one-act plays are representative of Valle-Inclán's esperpento, his trademark tragicomedy that years after his death in 1936 has made their author a dramatist of international stature.  Peopled by grotesque characters and marked by sexually tinged violence, these esperpentos couple a surface reality with an underlying texture of the mystic and surreal.
• Sacrilege received its English-language premiere in the Department of Drama, University of Calgary, Canada, 7 December 1999.
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Suripanta Teatro, 1987

Photo by Chicho

BLOOD PACT.  A Play for Silhouettes

The Lass, a nubile witch, and the itinerant Knife Grinder seal their lust with a pact that results in a sacrificial death.

• One set
  1 man, 3 women plus 1 silent man
• World premiere:  Dir. Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, December 19, 1926.

THE PAPER ROSE.  Melodrama for Marionettes.

A dying woman, mother of three, is beset by her drunk of a husband in search of her savings until his stupor causes the conflagration that consumes all.
 

• One set
  2 men, 8 women, 3 small children plus offstage voices

  World premiere:  October 17, 1924, Teatro El Centro, Madrid.

THE HEAD OF THE BAPTIST.  Melodrama for Marionettes

Seeking to recover his inheritance, a young man tracks his foster father to Spain and threatens him with the exposure for the murder of his mother in Mexico, only to be murdered himself.

• One set
  6 men, 1 woman plus a group of young men

  World premiere:  October 17, 1924, Teatro El Centro, Madrid.

SACRILEGE.  A Play for Silhouettes

In an Andalusian cave, a band of thieves prepares the execution of one of their group, granting his wish for confession with a pretense that has immense implications.
 

• One set
  7 men

  World premiere:  October 17, 1924, Teatro El Centro, Madrid.

• Contact translator:  Robert Lima, 351 North Burrowes Building,  The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802; Phone:  814-865-4252; Fax: 814-863-7944
  

Ramón del Valle-Inclan