IRIBARNE

IRIBARNE is a guy who was born in the same village of Rouco Varela (you got it, the cardinal) during the Monarchy of Alfonso XIII (the first promoter of porn films in Spain? That’s the one!). After emigrating to Cuba at just one year of age, at the start of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship, and living in the Americas for a couple of years, our main character returns in triumph to be the son of the mayor (and the French woman!). His final years at high school saw the start of the 2nd Republic, he almost became a priest during the Civil War but decided to head for Madrid, following in the footsteps of another illustrious Galician as soon as the Era of the Aforementioned (the dictator of course) had begun. He put his heart and soul into becoming a Minister as quickly as possible, despite having shot his daughter in the bottom two days prior (What? Yes! It’s true). As the first and best civil service candidate in Spain, he wanted to substitute Franco when the dictator died. It was not to be —this time there was no test to ace. He had to settle for the position of Viceroy in his beloved Galicia.

IRIBARNE is an (irreverent) attempt to understand how we got here by focusing on a secondary —although incredibly essential— role in the Beautiful History of My Beloved Spain (Our Spain). This Living Spain, This Defunct Spain. Careful though, although it might seem like it, this is not a Manuel Fraga biopic. We’d loved to have done that, but there was too much material for just one play!