Bodies of Evidence, Resistance and Protest: Embodying the Spanish Civil War on the Contemporary Spanish Stage

This article explores ways in which the Spanish Civil War has been represented and performed on contemporary Spanish stages, focusing analysis on three productions: Àlex Rigola’s 2015 adaptation of Incerta glòria by Joan Sales; Joan Ollé’s 2014 adaptation of Mercè Rodoreda La plaza del Diamante; and Carme Portaceli’s 2015 adaptation of Carmen Domingo’s Només són dones/ Solo son mujeres. I use one of the most emblematic plays to construct and explore a space for memory of the Spanish Civil War, José Sanchis Sinisterra’s ¡Ay, Carmela! (1987), to investigate a shift in emphasis from the urge to create a space for memory to concern with how the often traumatic memories of the war and its aftermath are inscribed corporeally. I argue that in the context of contemporary discursive practice about the Spanish Civil War, the direction theatrical explorations are taking presents an opportunity for innovative reflection on the way we look at bodies in relation to events of collective violence and trauma, centring not only on the search for the bodies of the dead but also on ways in which living bodies continue to be marked by and transmit the impact of these events into the future.