Helen Manchester Gates
Helen Manchester Gates (–1948) was an American writer, translator, and dramatist, best known for her English translations of Spanish-language plays, including works by María Lejárraga, often published under the name Gregorio Martínez Sierra. Born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, she was the daughter of Congregationalist minister Rev. Isaac Edwin Gates and poet Ellen M. H. Gates. Her translations were staged (for example, The Romantic Young Lady in London in 1920 and The Kingdom of God in Dublin in 1924), contributing to the international reception of Lejárraga's work. She later became known by her married names, Helen Huntingdon and Helen Granville-Barker, and was involved in literary and theatrical circles on both sides of the Atlantic.
Her first husband was the philanthropist and hispanist Archer Milton Huntington whom she married in 1895. The ceremony took place at St George's, Hanover Square. The bride and groom may have been cousins. The identity of Archer's father is not clear. Archer's mother married the railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington (Helen's uncle) when Archer was a child. Collis recognised Archer as his adopted son. Archer did not take much interest in the family railroad business, but had the resources to found the Hispanic Society of America in 1904. He presented it with a substantial collection of Spanish art including Goya's The Black Duchess.
Helen published Folk Songs from the Spanish (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1900).
She left her first husband for Harley Granville-Barker who had been a major figure in British theatre in the Edwardian period. They began an affair in New York, where Granville-Barker was producing a play, and they married in 1918 after divorcing their respective partners (Archer and Lillah McCarthy). She remained married to him until his death in 1946.
Play translations
[edit]Martínez Sierra
[edit]With Harley she translated some of the relatively new plays then attributed to Gregorio Martínez Sierra (it has since been established that much of the output of Gregorio was written by his wife María Lejárraga).[1]
The Granville-Barkers were not the only translators interested in Martínez Sierra plays. In 1922/23 a two-volume set was published with one volume by the Granville-Barkers and one volume by John Garrett Underhill. The Granville-Barkers were quicker in getting their translations on the stage and in 1920 Harley directed a production of what appears to be their first translation, The Romantic Young Lady (Spanish: Sueño de una noche de agosto). It had a run at the Royalty Theatre.[2]
There was quite a lot of interest outside Spain in staging these plays, although Harley became less involved in the London theatrical scene. The plays became less fashionable after 1950.[3]
Productions in Ireland
[edit]In 1924, the year the Abbey Theatre in Dublin staged the premiere of Juno and the Paycock, it also staged two Granville-Barker translations, The Two Shepherds (Spanish: Los pastores, 1913) and The Kingdom of God (Spanish: Reino de Dios, 1916). Sara Allgood played Juno in Juno and the Paycock, Doña Paquita in The Two Shepherds and Margarita in Kingdom of God.[4][5] Eileen Crowe also appeared in all three plays.
In many ways María Lejárraga was a progressive figure (she was elected to Congress as a Socialist Party representative for Granada). However, at least some "Martínez Sierra" plays reflected the values of a Catholic society.[6] For example, "The Two Shepherds" is about the retirement of a priest and his replacement by a younger man. Such plays seem to have had a special appeal in the Irish Free State which consciously sought to promote a cultural identity distinct from that of Great Britain. Even plays which were less religious in subject manner were perceived as coming from a non-British culture.[7]
By the end of the 1920s the Granville-Barker translations had a rival on the Irish stage with the appearance of the first Gaelic translations. Irish nationalists were keen to develop theatre in the Irish language, particularly in the west of the country, to help keep the language alive. The first Martínez Sierra play to be performed in Gaelic was Bean An Ghaiscidhigh (Spanish: La mujer del héroe; English: Wife to a famous man).[3] It was produced at An Taibhdhearc, Galway in 1929 in a translation by Tomás Ó hÉighneacháin (alias O Higgins).[8] Ó hÉighneacháin, who translated other Martínez Sierra plays, may have used the English translations to some extent as a source.[3] English translations of Sierra Martinez plays continued to be performed in Ireland until around 1950.
Productions in the USA
[edit]The Kingdom of God was successfully staged in New York in 1929.[9]
Quintero brothers
[edit]The Granville-Barkers also published translations of plays by the brothers Alvarez Quintero such as "A Hundred Years Old" (El Centenario).[10]
References
[edit]- ^ María Martínez Sierra: A Great Playwright Hidden in Plain Sight: Three Plays from Spanish Theatre's Silver Age (three plays by María Martínez Sierra, translated by Helen and Harley Granville-Barker, along with an introduction by Patricia O'Connor, University of Cincinnati)
- ^ Callahan, David. "Harley Granville-Barker and the Response to Spanish Theater, 1920–1932." Comparative Drama, vol. 25, no. 2, 1991, pp. 129–46. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41153507. Accessed 25 June 2025.
- ^ a b c Muñiz, Iris (2021). "Sobre la recepción irlandesa de los Martínez Sierra (incluyendo un epistolario inédito entre María Martínez Sierra y una de sus traductoras, Cecilia Wheeler)". Anales de La Literatura Española Contemporánea, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 117–46 (in Spanish). Retrieved June 25, 2025.
- ^ "The Two Shepherds (February 1924)".
- ^ "The Kingdom of God (November 1924)". Abbey Theatre.
- ^ Callahan, David. "Harley Granville-Barker and the Response to Spanish Theater, 1920–1932". Comparative Drama, vol. 25, no. 2, 1991, pp. 129–46. Retrieved June 26, 2025.
When the Granville-Barkers' translation of Holy Night was published in 1928, the anonymous reviewer for Time and Tide referred to: "Sierra again in his familiar Catholic atmosphere..."
- ^ "Some plays worth seeing".
- ^ "Ó hEIGHNEACHÁIN, Tomás". National Database of Irish-language Biographies (in Irish).
- ^ "The Kingdom of God". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved June 25, 2025.
- ^ "A Hundred Years Old". Victoria and Albert Museum.