Three Comedies

Three Comedies represents the first English-language collection of plays by Jaime Salom, one of Spain’s most important contemporary dramatists. His forty-plus works encompass an impressive array of sub-genres, including domestic dramas, mysteries, political allegories, historical comedies, metaphysical meditations, and tales of Spanish life. Best known for his veiled critiques of Francisco Franco’s regime, Salom went on to explore less overtly politicised themes following the dictator’s death in 1975. This welcome new volume features a trio of comedies from his later phase that offer acute insight into life under the eased restraints of a nominally democratic Spain. Included in this collection are Behind the Scenes in Eden (1978), a wry retelling of events in Eden from a feminist perspective; Rigmaroles (1990), which recounts Golden Age author Juan Timoneda’s domestic turmoil precipitated by a change in political winds; and The Other William (1998), in which Shakespeare appears as an opportunistic actor taking credit for someone else’s writing. All three comedies revel in the foibles of protagonists who, in their search for self-determination, never quite manage to escape the spectre of tyrannical authority.