Out of the Wings: Plays from Spain - Omnibus Theatre, 7:30pm, Saturday 8 February 2025
Join Out of the Wings at Omnibus Theatre, Clapham, for Plays from Spain, an encounter with contemporary Spanish playwriting, its international reach, and its impact on the English-speaking stage. Book is open now at this link, and attendance is free of charge.
Plays from Spain begins with rehearsed readings of extracts, in English translation, of three Spanish plays, by writers whose work has won widespread recognition at home and crossed borders into the English-speaking world and beyond. Between them, this small sample from Spain’s vibrant new-writing scene have garnered national awards, critical accolades, and performances and publications in multiple languages and countries.
In The Glass Ceiling: Anne & Sylvia, Laura Rubio Galletero re-imagines the relationship between three giants of 20th-Century literature. In Valparaíso (Four Days, Four Nights), Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez takes three siblings on a trip to honour their late father’s wanderlust. And in Harakiri, María Velasco investigates what is left behind by those who take the most final of decisions. Kate O’Connor directs English translations by Rachel Toogood, William Gregory, and Toni Roberts.
The extracts will be followed by a panel discussion on Spanish playwriting today and its place in the English-speaking theatre landscape, chaired by Professor Catherine Boyle (King’s College London) with panellists including Professor Maria Delgado (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) and Toni Roberts (translator of Harakiri), with other panellists to be announced.
Tickets to Plays from Spain are free of charge, but please book in advance on line at this link. The event has been made possible thanks to support from the Baroness von Schlippenbach endowment.
Content warning: These plays include the discussions of suicide, death and grief, and cancer.
Featured Artists
Playwrights
Laura Rubio Galletero is a stand-out Spanish playwright with a broad trajectory in theatre and gender studies. The founder of the company Producciones Señora_Rojo, her work explores themes of equality and social justice, combining artistic creation with a solid feminist perspective. Her work has been recognised in Spain, where she has been a finalist for the MAX and Alfred de Musset awards, and internationally, with plays presented at prestigious festivals in Canada (Women Playwrights International), Mexico (Festival Resistencia Escénica), Argentina (Ciclo Mano a Mano) and the UK (Out of the Wings). The English translation of her play The Glass Ceiling: Anne & Sylvia is published by Estreno Plays. Other works include Shopping Centre Paradise, also translated into English, performed at the Out of the Wings Festival, and published by Inti Press. Laura also directs the 7 Villas theatre festival in Madrid, which promotes access to culture in rural areas. Her work as an educator and her academic publications consolidate her influence on the intersection of theory, theatre practice, and social change.
Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez is a playwright, screenwriter, and theatre and film director, originally from Port de Sagunt, Valencia. His plays have been translated into English, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Persian and Bulgarian. UK productions of his work include Cuzco (Theatre503, directed and co-produced by Kate O’Connor, later published in The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Plays) and We Won’t Shoot Ourselves (Rosemary Branch). His other work as a playwright includes Wild Horses Wouldn’t Drag Me Away (winner, 2011 INJUVE Award); Not Even Spain’s Damn Mother Would Recognise Her, co-written with Lucía Carballal (nominee, 2017 MAX Award for Best Debut Production); Hattie Naylor’s Ivan and the Dogs (winner, 2018 MAX Award for Best Actor); What is love? Baby don’t hurt me (winner, Valencian Stage Award for Best Adaptation); A House, Once; The House of Sorrows (National Theatre of Catalonia); and La Florida. Valparaíso (Four Days, Four Nights), his latest play, opened with a sold-out run at the 2024 Russafa Escènica festival in Valencia, to critical and public acclaim.
María Velasco is a playwright, theatre director, researcher and educator. Her plays have been translated in to French, Italian, German, Polish, Turkish, Serbian and English. International and national recognition for her work includes the Heidelberger Stückemarkt International Award, the 2022 MAX Award for Best Playwright, and the 2024 National Literature Award for Drama. Her play I Will Wipe Men off the Face of the Earth was performed at the 2022 Out of the Wings Festival (translated by Kelsi Vanada) and has been produced in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Germany. Her other recent works include Amadora and Primera Sangre. Velasco has also written texts for interdisciplinary and dance companies. Harakiri was originally written for the Catalan company Les Impuxibles, known for their approach to cutting-edge theatre and stage practice. It opened in 2022 at the National Theatre of Catalonia, Barcelona, and at the National Theatre of Spain in Madrid.
Translators
William Gregory has worked as a translator of plays from Spain since his first-ever translation, Julio Escalada’s Springtime, at the Finborough Theatre in 2003. Since then, his translations of Spanish playwrights have included Cuzco by Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez (Theatre503), Chalkland by Vanessa Montfort (Royal Court), 581 Maps by Juan Mayorga (Royal Court), An American Life by Lucía Carballal (Cervantes Theatre) and The Sickness of Stone by Blanca Doménech (Out of the Wings). He was the translator and editor of The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Plays and of the recently published anthology by Methuen of works by the Spain-based Cuban playwright, Abel González Melo. His translations of plays from the wider Spanish-speaking world include A Fight Against… by Pablo Manzi (Royal Court) and Villa by Guillermo Calderón (Prime Cut, Belfast; PlayCo, New York). In July 2024 he joined the artistic team of the Orange Tree Theatre as Literary Associate. As a Visiting Research Associate at King’s College London and member of the Out of the Wings Collective, he is the co-producer of Plays from Spain.
Toni Roberts is a London-born translator, playwright and theatre director. Their first play, Biology, was performed as part of The Platform at the Bread & Roses Theatre in February 2020. Since then, they have written and directed a number of plays, most recently Same, Same, But Different (2022/2023) at Brixton House. They have worked with the award-nominated arts collective Bold Mellon Collective as a playwright and director and co-founded the theatre company Unnamed Friend Productions in 2022. Roberts graduated from UCL in 2023 with a master’s in Translation Studies. Their master’s thesis specialised in literary translation. Harakiri is the first play they have translated.
Rachel Toogood is a freelance producer and translator. She has translated two plays by Laura Rubio Galletero: Shopping Centre Paradise was featured in the 2021 Out of the Wings festival and published by Inti Press. The Glass Ceiling: Anne & Sylvia was published by Estreno Contemporary Spanish Plays and performed in the US as part of Spain Arts and Culture in 2021. Rachel has also translated Distance for the theatre company La Société de la Mouffette. She is currently translating a Cuban version of The Bacchae by Raquel Carrió and Flora Lauten, alongside the play Preludio de Ana by Sandra Massera for a forthcoming anthology of works by Uruguayan playwrights. Rachel’s other translation projects include working with Manchester International Festival, Jewish Book Week and translating Omara Portuondo’s lyrics. As a producer, Rachel has worked with the Royal Court Theatre's International Programme producing productions, readings and projects ranging from Spain and Mexico to China and Japan. She is currently working with Performing International Plays, producing workshops of international plays in schools, and with Flip Through Flanders, where she has recently produced a series of readings of plays from Flanders in the Voila! Theatre Festival at Barons Court Theatre.
Director
Kate O’Connor’s directing practice spans new plays, accessible and international theatre. She is Associate Director with Frozen Light, who make multi-sensory theatre for audiences with PMLD; she has directed 9 shows for UK-wide tours over the last 10 years, as the company has become a pioneering force in accessible theatre. She loves collaborating with theatre translators, most recently on Flip through Flanders at Voila Festival. Previous work includes an audio recording of Romanian play Decomposed Theatre, Spanish play Cuzco at Theatre503, texts from Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Chile with Out of the Wings, and from Italy and Norway for international playwriting festivals. Kate has been a Community Director at the Orange Tree, Creative Associate at The Gate, Associate with Company of Angels, Associate Director with METIS and in the West End, and Researcher on Lola Arias’ Minefield. She trained with Gaulier and was a finalist in the JMK Award 2012 and 2014.
Plays from Spain is free to attend but advance booking is appreciated via this link.
Comments