{"product_id":"buero-vallejo-in-the-burning-darkness","title":"Philip G. Johnston: Buero Vallejo: In the Burning Darkness [2010] paperback","description":"Arguably Spain's leading playwright of the twentieth century,  Antonio Buero-Vallejo published thirty original plays.  In the Burning Darkness  was the first play he wrote. The seminal, and lasting, significance of this play was confirmed when an extract  from it was read over Buero-Vallejo's grave on the day of his  burial.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the Burning Darkness  describes a teaching centre for young people who are blind, where a false unity is maintained by a  mixture of fear, coercion and diversion where, when persuasion  fails, violence is resorted to, and where \"education\" is seen to  play a part in the regime's ideological apparatus and to  encourage the acceptance of pleasant and reassuring myths. The  play's principal protagonist is Iggy who, although blind like his  classmates, is immediately seen to be different from the others  because he carries a cane. When Iggy makes a move on Jane, part  of the Centre's golden couple with her boyfriend Charles, he  begins to challenge and destabilise the values cherished by the  Centre.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBuero-Vallejo described  In the Burning Darkness  as a work \"loaded with future\", and that observation points the way to why it is  being translated now.  Although it emerged in 1950 onto a dreary  and trivial theatre scene in Francoist Spain, its themes, such as  blindness and anxiety of an alienated protagonist, can speak to  modern audiences and have a universal, rather than merely  parochially Spanish, resonance.  It poses a transcendental  question about whether or not violence can ever be justified.   The teaching centre and the blindness of those within is symbolic  of post-Civil War Spain, where anti-democratic abuses were  overlooked. The play operates on literal, political and  philosophical levels.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChallenging audiences and seeking hopefully to change mind-sets  was the stock in trade of Antonio Buero-Vallejo as a dramatist.   As he once stated himself: \"Se escribe porque se espera\" (\"One  writes because one hopes\").","brand":"Johnston, Philip G.","offers":[{"title":"Good","offer_id":47705268814163,"sku":"XG80856688430","price":9.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/johnston-philip-g-buero-vallejo-in-the-burning-darkness-xg80856688430-54556829778259.jpg?v=1728045664","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.com\/products\/buero-vallejo-in-the-burning-darkness","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}