Why Is the Spanish Government Afraid of a Puppet Show?

“The Witch and Don Cristóbal” débuted in January at an anarchist library in Granada, the latest production by the two-man troupe known as Títeres Desde Abajo (“Puppets from Below”). It tells the story of a squatter, the Witch, and an abusive landlord, Don Cristóbal, who comes to evict her from the house that he owns, sexually assaulting her in the process. The Witch manages to kill Cristóbal, but not before she becomes pregnant. This inaugurates a series of further misfortunes. A nun comes to take the infant away, and the Witch fights her off, stabbing her with a crucifix. Then a policeman shows up, knocks the Witch down, and tries to frame her as a radical, planting a meatball bomb and an inflammatory placard—“GORA ALKA-ETA”—beside her. “Gora,” in Basque, means “Long live,” and ETA is the acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, a Basque separatist group. “Alka-ETA,” in Spanish, sounds an awful lot like “Al Qaeda.” A judge appears with a noose in hand, ready to execute the Witch as a mega-terrorist, but she tricks him into hanging himself. Francisco Andújar, who attended the première, told me that it was entertaining, if a little puzzling. “Most of the play was in Esperanto,” he said. “The Judge spoke Latin, and the Witch was just making noises.”