The Force of Destiny
Written: 2006
Translated in 2006, in Córdoba, from La fuerza del destino by the Duque de Rivas.
Still to be publicly performed.
Runner up in Gate Theatre’s translation competition
Cast: 6 actors (4M 2F)
This play has never been translated into English before. Yet it is one of the most important theatrical texts of 19th century Spain. It was a crucial literary weapon in the struggle between the forces of liberalism and the forces of reaction. Nothing like it had ever been seen before; nothing quite like it was ever to be seen again.
Its vast scope, huge number of characters (56), its extravagant variety of settings and its wild, unrestrained emotionalism all but guarantee its non-appearance in these more cynical times. Yet its energy, its emotional generosity and its wild excesses of feeling mean it possesses something in its spirit that our theatre badly needs. And that is why I have decided to translate it. In adapting it I have curbed some of its more extravagant and impractical excesses whilst utterly respecting the freedom of spirit which inspired it.