Lavapiés - diverse, multicultural, and one of Madrid’s most iconic neighbourhoods - has emerged as a locus of resistance movements and of cultural flourishing. Poised at the intersection of theatre studies and cultural geography, this innovative study sketches its physical and imaginary contours.
In From the Theater to the Plaza Matthew Feinberg guides readers on a journey through the development of the theatre, as both art and space, in Lavapiés. Offering a detailed analysis of dramatic texts and productions, performance spaces, urban planning documents, and the cultural activities of squatters, Feinberg sheds new light on the lead-up to Spain’s economic crisis and the emergence in 2011 of the 15-M anti-austerity protest movement. The result is a multidisciplinary account of how the spectacle of the contemporary city connects local, municipal, and global geographies.
By linking the neighbourhood’s unique role as both a site and a subject of Madrid’s theatre tradition with its contemporary struggles over gentrification, From the Theater to the Plaza offers new approaches for understanding how culture and capital produce the twenty-first-century city.

Matthew I. Feinberg is assistant professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Baldwin Wallace University.

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“From the Theater to the Plaza provides an indispensable look into the dialogic relationship between urban space and theater. Matthew Feinberg skillfully moves across three scales of experience (the local, the municipal, and the global) to offer a compelling reading of the urban history of both Madrid and Lavapiés.” Stephen Vilaseca, Northern Illinois University and author of Anarchist Socialism in Early Twentieth-Century Spain: A Ricardo Mella Anthology

“Using evidence found in the streets and on the stage, Feinberg finds Lavapiés to be a space for theater and a theatrical space, represented, representing, lived, practiced, bought, sold, and contested. Beautifully written, From the Theater to the Plaza is a thoroughly enjoyable and insightful read.” Nathan Richardson, University of Texas at San Antonio and author of Constructing Spain: The Re-imagination of Space and Place in Fiction and Film, 1953–2003

“From the Theater to the Plaza delves into the history of Madrid and its cultural production. With a keen focus on the Lavapiés district [Feinberg] masterfully unveils the contingent and overlapping nature of the neighborhood and the metropolis [and] offers readers a comprehensive history of the cultural conflicts that have shaped the life and identity of this neighborhood and its inhabitants.” Hispanófila

“El libro ofrece un estudio original y único por su enfoque cultural ‘desde la calle’. Intelectualmente iluminador, bien concebido y de gran rigor histórico, Feinberg muestra cómo el teatro se desborda de sus ámbitos preestablecidos para reformularse en otros espacios públicos y mantenerse en constante mutación. Este estudio recordará, sin duda, al lector que el teatro es inseparable de la tragedia del ser humano, como bien reclamó Valle-Inclán en la Madrid Bohemia de los años veinte.” Hispania