Theatre
The Cradle Song
Canción de cuna
Synopsis
Castile, late nineteenth century: at the door of a convent of enclosed Dominican nuns, a small abandoned girl is found one morning. The village doctor, Don José, legally adopts her, and the nuns, who call her Teresa, raise her within their walls. The play gives voice to this community of women, the prioress, the vicaress, the young and old sisters, gathered around the child.
Context
Premiered at the Teatro Lara in Madrid on 21 February 1911, the play appeared under the sole signature of Gregorio Martínez Sierra, like most of the couple's works; it was only after Gregorio y yo, the book María Lejárraga published in Mexico in 1953, that her role was recognised. The play travelled widely: Broadway in 1927, the Comédie-Française in 1936, London in 1944 in a production by John Gielgud. Cinema has adapted it five times, from Mitchell Leisen in 1933 to José Luis Garci in 1994.
Who it is for
A comedy in two acts, in prose, which depends less on the plot than on the group of nuns and their voices.
Prizes and reception
Prize of the Spanish Academy for the best play of the 1910-1911 season; performed in America and Europe.