Although numerous books and articles discuss the interrelationships between Spanish and French theatre for such periods as the Golden Age and Romanticism, few scholarly studies explore the contemporary period. The cultural interchange between the stages of Spain and France has never totally disappeared, and indeed has at times had major significance over the past several decades. Zatlin provides a comprehensive view of these interrelationships, with emphasis on the 1970s and 1980s. It is based not only on related prior studies and on data from theatre annuals, but also on interviews with theatre people in both countries and on specific productions. The first section of the book includes overviews of Spanish-language theatre performed in France, Spanish theatre performed in French translation, and French theatre performed in Spain. The second section contains four chapters on individual authors with strong bicultural backgrounds: Emmanuel Robles, Eduardo Manet, Francisco Nieva, and Carlos Semprun-Maura. The plays chosen for analysis are rich examples of metatheatricalism and intertextuality in which literary or historical texts from one nation are reworked in the other language. With production photos and an appendix of English translations of play titles cited in Catalan, French, and Spanish.
