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National Drama Literature Award 2011

This theatrical piece, which received the National Drama Literature Award in 2011, was commissioned and published by the Residencia de Estudiantes in 2010. This edition commemorated its centenary and spread and shared with the audience an essential part of its legacy: the task that was carried out by the scientific laboratories, ground-breaking in some fields at the time, between 1925 and 1936. The life of one of these laboratories, the General Physiology one directed by Juan Negrín, was recreated for the first time in a theatre play which premiered at the end of 2010 at the María Guerrero Theatre. The play reproduces the informal gatherings that took place there every day at noon, when the residents got together to get coffee, chat about the daily anecdotes or comment on the most recent scientific publications, the scientific advances or any other breaking news. Among the audience were José Moreno Villa, Severo Ochoa, Juan Negrín, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Miguel de Unamuno, Ángel Llorca, Justa Freire or Francisco Grande Covián, joined by occasional attendees such as the musician Jesús Bal y Gay or some of the distinguished lecturers that were then invited to the Residencia, such as Le Corbusier, Max Jacob or Marie Curie.

The first edition of this piece was so well-received that it had been sold out for years, despite the translations that were edited in other countries. The collaboration of the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Cortes and Democratic Memory has made it possible to put forth this awaited second edition.

José Ramón Fernández (Madrid, 1962). Recipient of the National Drama Literature Award in 2011 for La colmena científica o El café de Negrín, he has premiered over thirty pieces – some written by himself, others as collaborative dramaturgical pieces –, which have been honoured with several prizes. In 2003 he received the Lope de Vega Award for Nina. In 1998 he was a finalist in the Tirso de Molina Award for La Tierra, and in 1993 he received the Calderón de la Barca Award for Para quemar la memoria. Furthermore, Las manos, the first piece of his Trilogía de la Juventud (Trilogy of Youth) written in collaboration with Yolanda Pallín and Javier García Yagüe, was awarded the Ojo Crítico Award and the Max Award 2002 to the best text in Spanish, among others. For the second piece of the trilogy, Imagina, the authors were finalists in the National Drama Literature Award 2003. The works of José Ramón Fernández have been translated into English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Polish, Romanian, Greek, Serbian, Hungarian and Japanese. He has also done more than a score of versions and adaptations of foreign texts, from Sophocles, Molière or Beaumarchais to Valle-Inclán, Llamazares or Max Aub. He was awarded the Max Award in 2017 for his adaptation of El laberinto mágico, by Max Aub.

PAPERBACK. 11 × 16 cm, 192 pp.
B/W AND COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS
ISBN: 978-84-937474-3-5