Dona Rosita the Spinster (Methuen Drama Student Editions)

In Dona Rosita the Spinster, set in Granada around 1900, Lorca paints a sympathetic picture of a young girl as she waits in vain for her fianc to return and her hopes of marriage fade. The fate of Rosita, symbolised by the rosa mutabile, which pales from red to pink to white in the course of a day, appears the more poignant as Lorca casts a satirical eye at the middle-class society of Granada by which she is surrounded.

First performed in 1935, Dona Rosita was greeted as one of Lorca's finest achievements and it remains a classic work of Spanish theatre alongside Lorca's Blood Wedding, The House of Bernarda Alba and Yerma. This Student Edition features parallel English and Spanish texts of the play, together with a full commentary, questions and a bibliography.

"The most accessible and personal of all his plays - a wistful tragic-comedy of unfulfilled love . . . fading beauty and passing time . . . realism mixes effortlessly with symbolism”—The Guardian (UK)

In a tragic and poetic tale, one of Lorca's greatest theatrical achievements, Dona Rositas sad future is clearly destined from the start, as the young girl waits in vain for her fiance to return and her hopes of marriage fade. Years drift by and Dona Rosita eventually lives with her aging aunt and uncle and becomes a sadder and more mellow woman. Her fate is symbolized by the rosa mutabile, a flower from her uncle's garden, which blooms and withers all in the same day. Lorcas play explores the human tendency to cling to impossible hopes in order to survive. Dona Rosita preserves her life's lie in order to make her solitude bearable. Like most of his other plays, Dona Rosita offers a criticism against the restrictions placed on women at the time of the Spanish Civil War, and their dependency upon men as instructed by society.

First performed in 1935, Dona Rosita remains a classic work of Spanish theatre alongside Lorca's Blood Wedding, The House of Bernarda Alba and Yerma. This Student Edition features parallel English and Spanish texts of the play, together with a full commentary, questions and a bibliography.

In Doa Rosita the Spinster, set in Granada around 1900, Lorca paints a sympathetic picture of a young girl as she waits in vain for her fianc to return and her hopes of marriage fade. The fate of Rosita, symbolised by the rosa mutabile, which pales from red to pink to white in the course of a day, appears the more poignant as Lorca casts a satirical eye at the middle-class society of Granada by which she is surrounded.

First performed in 1935, Doa Rosita was greeted as one of Lorca's finest achievements and it remains a classic work of Spanish theatre alongside Lorca's Blood Wedding, The House of Bernarda Alba and Yerma. This Student Edition features parallel English and Spanish texts of the play, together with a full commentary, questions and a bibliography.

'Doa Rosita is the most accessible and personal of all his plays - a wistful tragic-comedy of unfulfilled love' Guardian