Old and new censorship in contemporary Spanish theatre

This chapter focuses on three aspects. Firstly, the longevity of dictatorship-era censorship in Spanish society and the persistent hold of old orthodoxies; secondly, the way a previously silenced past is remembered through contemporary performance; and, thirdly, the continuing existence of cultural control in the present.
Although the Franco regime ended in the 1970s, its legacy lives on in the cultural sphere and the chapter looks at how old orthodoxies retain a hold on dramatists, practitioners and the public. It also considers how the legacy of past censorship interacts with current debates about cultural and historical memory. As Spain continues to experience an often-painful reckoning with its past, the theatre is once again a site of collective exploration, contestation, and hope. This chapter shows how versions of history that the Franco regime sought to censor are being reimagined and enacted on the contemporary stage.

Finally, and whilst understanding censorship to operate on a continuum and as a practice that always exists in society and culture in some form, the chapter briefly considers the presence of new forms of censorship in the Spanish theatre and the difficulty this poses for contemporary practitioners wishing to bring innovative and provocative theatre to the stage.