One of the significant developments in recent years in studies of Spanish Golden Age theatre has been an increase of interest in how the plays of that astonishingly rich genre have been, are being, and might be performed. No longer are plays examined only as literary texts, but also as living works of theatre, combining spoken words, gesture, movement, music, and spectacle. Analyses written from that point of view are now quite common in the professional journals, and there is even a new periodical – entitled, appropriately enough, Comedia Performance – that concentrates exclusively on matters of performance. Many of the articles that have appeared in the last fifteen years that may broadly be categorized as performance-oriented discuss theatre practices, both of the early modern and modern periods; others attempt to imagine virtual representations of individual works; still others comment on productions of specific plays. Surprisingly, however, very few of those studies deal with the performance of Spanish plays in English translation, the focus of this volume.

Such an omission is all the more remarkable in that Spanish comedias – verse plays in three acts with a wide range of themes and characters, and a blending of comic and tragic tonalities – have appeared on the stages of the English-speaking world with increasing frequency in recent years. One may point to numerous student and amateur productions, but in addition to these there have been notable professional stagings, including those incorporated into the internationally known Siglo de Oro Drama Festival, held annually at the Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso, Texas, and those that were mounted by the Royal Shakespeare Company during its “Spanish Season” in the summer of 2004. Considered as a whole, all these productions, whether undertaken by professional or non-professional organizations, suggest a fascinating array of questions. What is the best way to translate the language of the Spanish original texts into modern English? Are verse translations preferable to those written in prose, and if so, what kind of verse? Should translations be “faithful” or should they aim at conveying the “spirit” of the original? Which kinds of plays “work” particularly well on the contemporary stages of English-speaking countries, and which “work” less well?