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- José María Rodríguez Méndez
José María Rodríguez Méndez
- Personal information
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Surname: Rodríguez Méndez
First name: José María
Born: 6 June 1925, , Spain
Died: 21 October 2009
- Biography
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In terms of his portrayal of the lives of ordinary Spaniards, José María Rodríguez Méndez is one of Spain’s most significant contemporary playwrights. Born in Madrid in 1925, he moved with his family to Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, and many of his plays reflect the cultural and linguistic cosmopolitism of this city. A law graduate, Rodríguez Méndez joined the army in 1956, after which he decided to concentrate on theatre. He joined ‘La Pipironda’ theatre company in 1958 and his first success as a playwright came in 1961 with Los inocentes de la Moncloa (The Innocents of the Moncloa). Rodríguez Méndez won the Larra Prize in 1964 and Spain’s Dramatic Literature prize in 1994. Despite his critical success, Rodríguez Méndez is sometimes considered a forgotten playwright of the Realist Generation. One reason for this is that Rodríguez Méndez refused to pander to the censors, meaning that before the death of Franco in 1975 his plays were rarely performed. Another reason was because of his ‘obstreperous self-exclusion from the political and artistic mainstream’, as Michael Thompson puts it (2007:10). Despite this, in recent years there has been a renewed interest in his work and productions of it have been well received.
Thompson, Michael. 2007. Performing Spanishness: History, Cultural Identity and Censorship in the Theatre of José María Rodríguez Méndez. Bristol and Chicago, Intellect
- Themes
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Rodríguez Méndez’s theatre explores the problems of everyday Spaniards. As Michael Thompson explains, Rodríguez Méndez’s dramas ‘reveal uncomfortable truths and engage with important social issues’ (2007: 10). He used theatre ‘to speak on behalf of ordinary people and give expression to their cultural identities without falsifying or over-simplifying them’ (Thompson 2007: 10). A number of his plays deal with historical events, presenting them ‘from below’ – through the eyes of outcasts and the disenfranchised (Halsey 1988: 26).
Halsey, Martha T. 1988. ‘Dramatic Patterns in Three History Plays of Contemporary Spain’, Hispania, 71.1, 20-30
Thompson, Michael. 2007. Performing Spanishness: History, Cultural Identity and Censorship in the Theatre of José María Rodríguez Méndez. Bristol and Chicago, Intellect
- Style
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Rodríguez Méndez’s plays are rooted in Spanishness, as he depicts the varied cultural and linguistic history of Spain. As part of a group of playwrights labelled the Realist Generation, his plays present realistic sketches of everyday life, often described through extensive, almost novelistic stage directions (Halsey 1988: 26).
Halsey, Martha T. 1988. ‘Dramatic Patterns in Three History Plays of Contemporary Spain’, Hispania, 71.1, 20-30
- Plays in the database
Entry written by Gwynneth Dowling. Last updated on 1 December 2011.
