Out of the Wings

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El cementerio de automóviles (1957), Fernando Arrabal

Titles
English title: Car Cementery
Date written: 1957
First publication date: 1958
Keywords: love, love > friendship, love > lust, violence, violence > social, violence > torture, power, power > inter-personal/game play
Genre and type: magic realism, absurdist
Pitch

Car Cemetery is a reimagining of the crucifixion story, set in a car cemetery populated by a cast of weird and wonderful characters. Hotel guests are squashed into cars. Runners sprint across the stage. Couples make love among the ruins. And then there are the jazz musicians: Foder, Topé and their Christ-like leader Emanu, who is soon to suffer a strange crucifixion, betrayed by his disciples and ignored by an indifferent world.

Synopsis

El cementerio de automóviles (Car Cemetery) is set amongst a bunch of rusty old cars that serve as hotel rooms. The hotel guests never leave their respective cars, although we are alway... (Read more...)

Sources

Christ’s crucifixion

Emanu is a Christ-like figure whose family background and death at the hands of the authorities have resonances with Christ’s life and death. His friends Topé and ... (Read more...)

Critical response

El cementerio de automóviles (Car Cemetery) is one of Arrabal’s most well-known plays internationally. The renowned Argentine director Víctor García was responsible for several elabora... (Read more...)

Further information

A French film version of the play was released in 1983, adapted by Arrabal.

Editions
  • Arrabal, Fernando. 1979. Teatro completo, vol. I, introduction by Angel Berenguer. Madrid, Cupsa Editorial

  • Arrabal, Fernando. 2004. El cementerio de automóviles; El arquitecto y el emp... (Read more...)

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Entry written by Gwynneth Dowling. Last updated on 15 March 2011.

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