María Martínez Sierra: Three Plays from Spanish Theatre's Silver Age

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María Martínez Sierra is the greatest female playwright you’ve never heard of. The wife of celebrated 20th century playwright Gregorio Martinez Sierra whose plays were popular in Spain, South America and in translation on Broadway and London's West End, the authorship of his work was revealed to be that of María , after his death in 1953, shocking the literary world.

This edited collection features four plays by María Martínez Sierra, translated by Helen and Harley Granville Barker, along with an introduction by Patricia O’Connor, University of Cinicinnati, that examines María's extraordinary life and work and the battle for her authorship to be recognized in both the Spanish speaking and Anglophone world. Edited by playwright Richard Nelson and Professor Colin Chambers, this volume helps rectify this narrative by focusing on four plays, each centered on a strong female role, and each translated by the eminent man of theatre Harley Granville Barker and his wife, Helen, whose own story holds stark parallels in terms of authorship.

The plays include: Wife to a Famous Man (1924); The Kingdom of God (1928); The Romantic Young Lady (1920) and Take Two From One (1931). Between them, they enjoyed celebrated runs on Broadway and in London's West End in productions starring the most iconic female actors of their time, including Ethel Barrymore, Gertrude Lawrence and Peggy Ashcroft

Overall, the book recognizes María de la O Lejárraga García, to use her real name, as one of the most important female playwrights, not just in Spain, but globally, in the first half of the 20th century.