despair, and dignity
at the nadir of the 20th century
by JAUME CAPÓ FRAU
Inspired by texts by STEFAN ZWEIG
and GEORGES BERNANOS
—In the midst of all the confusion of war, who is listening to us today, Mr Zweig?
—In the midst of all the misery and betrayal of humanity, who is reading us today, Monsieur Bernanos?
In February 1942, at the height of Nazi domination during the Second World War, two renowned European intellectuals exiled in Brazil – Austrian Stefan Zweig and Frenchman Georges Bernanos – agree to meet at the latter’s property in Barbacena. Zweig, of Jewish origin, has for years been the most published and translated German-language author, but with Hitler’s rise to power he was forced into exile and had to leave Europe. Bernanos, a monarchist and ultra-conservative Catholic, changed from showing admiration for fascism to harsh condemnation of it after witnessing in Mallorca, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, the violence of the military coup plotters with the connivance of the Church.
Zweig and Bernanos, despite not knowing each other personally, share their humanism and freedom of thought, although not always with affinity given their antithetical characters. Talking about dehumanisation in times of conflict, about the role of the intellectual, about nationalism and Europeanism, about uniformisation and about social and cultural globalisation, they engage in a conversation that is as enlightening as it is hopeless.
THE TEXT
ON SALE AT
Digital and print edition (print edition includes the original Catalan text).
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PERFORMANCE
From staged reading on 28 August 2022 to premiere on september 2024 (La Fornal theatre productions, Manacor, Mallorca).
Òscar Intente, as Stefan Zweig
Joan Gomila, as Georges Bernanos
Frederic Roda, director
Sadurní Vergés, dramaturgical assistant
CALENDAR
THE PLAYWRIGHT
Photo: Àlex Castelló.
Jaume Capó Frau (Manacor, Mallorca, 1964) is a philologist specialised in public communication and a writer of grey literature (co-author of Escriure és facil – Proa, 1997 – and of the art book Barcelona escultures – Barcelona City Council, 2003 – and winner of the Laus Prize 2012 in the Naming category). He has published the books Ronda amb fantasmes (Tià de sa Real, 1983), La petita mort (Llunari, 1986) and Trànsit (Àrea Contemporània, 1987). He has participated in the compilations of short stories La profecia (Àrea Contemporània, 1988) and Mosaic de lletres (Món de Llibres, 2009), has put the words to Jordi Vilella’s photographs for the Barcelona art book Perdut per les Rambles (Apart Edicions, 2013) and has collaborated in diverse digital spaces (1991, badosa.com). He was editor of the comics and letters magazine Llunari (1983-1986). Z/B is the first theatrical text he has presented after several years of training at the Playwriting Workshop of the Sala Beckett in Barcelona. The work is the result of an interest in the cultural avant-gardes and Central European literatures of the interwar period, and in the positions adopted by intellectuals in the face of totalitarianism.
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