SOURCE: "Rene Marques' La muerte no entrará en palacio: An Analysis," in Latin American Theatre Review, Vol. II, No. 1, Fall, 1968, pp. 31-38.

In the following essay, Shaw examines elements of social protest and tragedy in La muerte no entrará en palacio.

Since the origins of the theatre in Latin America, playwrights there have struggled to conciliate two major ideals: to interpret the reality of their native environment and to remain abreast of innovations in the European theatre. Among the works by contemporary dramatists included in Carlos Solórzano's El teatro hispanoamericano contemporáneo (1964) is the Puerto Rican René Marqués' fifth play La muerte no entrará en palacio (1957) which attempts to do justice to both aspects of this dual imperative. It stands out in consequence from the mass of teatro de protesta which, if the recent history of the Latin American novel offers reliable indications, is a genre...