Lorca’s dresses resurface after Uruguayan discovery
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Researchers in Uruguay identified nine dresses worn by actress Margarita Xirgu in the 1930 premiere of Federico García Lorca’s play La zapatera prodigiosa (The Prodigious Shoemaker).
Xirgu took the costumes with her when she exiled to Uruguay in 1936, hoping to meet with Lorca in Mexico, a meeting that never occurred. A team from the Comedia Nacional in Montevideo discovered the unmarked dresses during a relocation of the theatre’s costume collection in 2016.
Sergio Marcelo de los Santos, leading the research, connected the dresses to the play by comparing them to photographs from the Museu de les Arts Escèniques in Barcelona and figurines held by the Museo del Teatro in Almagro. The dresses, designed by Lorca himself, had faded with time and showed signs of humidity and wear. Students from the Margarita Xirgu Multidisciplinary School of Dramatic Art assisted in the conservation of the textiles.
The dresses were recently displayed in Montevideo as part of an exhibit titled “Xirgu en escena, Lorca en la memoria” (Xirgu on Stage, Lorca in Memory). The Comedia Nacional, the EMAD, and the Teatro Solís organised the showing and plan to create a dedicated museum to house the collection. Xirgu continued to perform Lorca’s works throughout her exile, preserving his legacy in Latin America until her death in Uruguay in 1969.
