Sastre, Alfonso

Sastre, Alfonso älfōnˈsō säˈstrā [key], 1926–, Spanish dramatist, essayist, and critic, b. Madrid. Approaching his work from a Marxist and existentialist point of view, he explores the problems of society's needy and rejected and pleads for justice in a world free of violence and hatred. His plays include Escuadra hacia la muerte [death squad] (1953), La mordaza [the gag] (1954), La cornade [death thrust] (1960), and Tragicomedia de la gitana Celestina [tragicomedy of the Gypsy Celestina] (1984).

See biography by F. Anderson (1971); T. A. Bryan, Censorship and Social Conflict in the Spanish Theatre: The Case of Alfonso Sastre (1982); Forys, M., Antonio Buero Vallejo and Alfonso Sastre: An Annotated Bibliography (1988).

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