Production History of
...and they put handcuffs on the
flowers."
THE INSPIRATION.
When Fernando Arrabal sat down in 1969 to write this
play about the suffering of prisoners in Spain under the Franco Dictatorship,
he was undoubtedly drawing off of two major experiences in his life.
The first of which started to unfold when Arrabal was
only four years old. Born in 1932, Arrabal was the son of a Spanish Army
Officer stationed in Melilla in what was then Spanish Morocco. In 1936,
his father refused to participate in General Franco's military coup, was
arrested, and held in prison until he disappeared under suspicious
circumstances in 1942.
So from a very early age, issues of imprisonment,
oppression, and resistance played a very significant role in Arrabal's life.
But he would have an even more direct experience with
Franco's unjust Justice System when he was arrested in Madrid in 1967.
Although living abroad, Arrabal had returned to Spain as part of a
book-signing tour and was arrested for writing an inscription in one of his
own novels that authorities considered "blasphemous."
An international campaign was mounted -- drawing
direct appeals from Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and Arthur Miller, among
others -- that would eventually secure Arrabal's release . . . but not before
he had undertaken to write a new play called "...and they put
handcuffs on the flowers."
THE PLAY UNVEILED.
"...and they put handcuffs on the
flowers." was first performed in Paris in 1969. Published
later that same year, it soon enjoyed multiple performances all over Europe.
After being translated into English by the
always-controversial American theatre critic, director, and playwright Charles
Marowitz, the play made it's North American debut at NYC's Mercer Arts Center
in 1972. Arrabal himself traveled to New York to direct this production.
While in rehearsal, there were numerous conflicts as
Arrabal doggedly refused to change even the slightest aspect of his script
which contained some incredibly bizarre, grotesque, and sometimes seemingly physically
impossible stage directions.
When the production at last opened, it caused an
enormous stir. The play's viciously graphic content and disjointedly
surreal plotline left some enthralled and others repulsed (and many who fell
into both camps). The New York Times praised it as a "grotesque
masterpiece" while other publications denounced it as an abomination.
To this day, the NYC debut of "...and they
put handcuffs on the flowers." (one of the precious few times the
play has ever been performed on this Continent) is remembered as one of the
infamous moments in the evolution of the off-Broadway theater scene.
Actor Ron Faber would later win the Obie Award for "Distinguished
Performance" for his portrayal of Pronos in this production.
Not long after that, Translator Charles Marowitz
brought the play to London in 1973 to be performed by his troupe, the Open
Space Theatre, under his own direction. While the performance was a
success, the notorious clashes it touched off between the director and his
ensemble brought an untimely end to the production and -- shortly thereafter
-- an untimely dissolution to the Open Space Theatre Company as well . . .
which was briefly one of London's most respected and influential fringe
theatres.
TIMES CHANGE...
While still widely produced in Europe, "...and
they put handcuffs on the flowers." was more or less put aside by
American theatres when the trend toward experimental plays subsided sometime
in the mid-late 1970s.
Today, the play is virtually untouched by mainstream
theatres. But we at Subversive Theatre are proud to help keep alive the
legacy of this quintessential work of 1960s protest theatre.
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THEY PUT HANDCUFFS ON THE FLOWERS. Mainpage
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