The Romantic Young Lady

The Romantic Young Lady is an English language play, a comedy of manners adapted from a Spanish original,[1] Sueño de una Noche de Agosto ("Dream of an August Night"), attributed to Gregorio Martínez Sierra.

It features a romantic heroine (Rosario), a sophisticated hero, and a thrice-married grandmother.[2] The action takes place between one August evening and the next.

The play is assumed to have been written at least in part by María de la O Lejárraga who was married to Gregorio Martínez Sierra. It was translated by Helen and Harley Granville-Barker. Helen knew Spanish whereas Harley is assumed not to have known much Spanish at this stage, but was a major figure in British theatre. The 1920s saw him become less involved in putting on plays, but he directed a production of The Romantic Young Lady at the Royalty Theatre, Dean Street in 1920.[3] The cast included:

  • Joyce Carey, Rosario[4]
  • Dennis Eadie, the Apparition. As well as being involved in the management of the Royalty Theatre, Eadie was cast in some of Harley's original plays.

Publication

The Granville-Barkers went on to translate other Martínez Sierra plays. The Romantic Young Lady was published by E. P. Dutton in 1923 in a volume with three other Martinez Sierra plays. (This was the second of a two-volume set with the first volume consisting of four translations by John Garrett Underhill).[5] It also appeared as a separate volume, The Romantic Young Lady: A Comedy In Three Acts published by French.[6]

Adptations

The BBC made two film adaptations (1938 and 1955), the second of which seems to have had more impact.

Other translations

The play was also translated into the Irish language as Taidhreamh Oidhche Lughnasa by Pádraig Ó Catháin. It was performed by the theatre company An Comhar Drámaíochta at the Gate Theatre, Dublin in 1931.[7] [6]

References

  1. ^ Nicoll, Allardyce (2009). English Drama, 1900-1930: The Beginnings of the Modern Period. Jones & Bartlett Learning. pp. 681–. ISBN 978-0-521-12947-3.
  2. ^ Bédé, Jean Albert; Edgerton, William Benbow (January 1980). Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature. Columbia University Press. pp. 517–. ISBN 978-0-231-03717-4.
  3. ^ Callahan, David. “Harley Granville-Barker and the Response to Spanish Theater, 1920-1932.” Comparative Drama, vol. 25, no. 2, 1991, pp. 129–46. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41153507. Accessed 25 June 2025.
  4. ^ "The Romantic Young Lady".
  5. ^ Sierra, Gregorio Martínez (1922). Plays of G. Martinez Sierra ...: The kingdom of God. The two shepherds. Wife to a famous man. The romantic young lady (Public domain ed.). E.P. Dutton. pp. 7, 219, 221–.
  6. ^ a b Muñiz, Iris (2021). "Sobre la recepción irlandesa de los Martínez Sierra (incluyendo un epistolario inédito entre María Martínez Sierra y una de sus traductoras, Cecilia Wheeler)". Anales de La Literatura Española Contemporánea, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 117–46 (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  7. ^ "Taidhreamh Oidhche Lughnasa". PlayographyIreland. Retrieved 2025-07-02.


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