Staff profile

I taught and researched in Hispanic Studies at Durham University from 1984 until my retirement in September 2022. Between 2020 and 2022, I was Deputy Executive Dean for Education, responsible for undergraduate and taught postgraduate education across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

My research focuses primarily on theatre in Spain since the early 20th century. My most substantial project, a collaboration with Professor Catherine O'Leary of the University of St Andrews, was funded by an AHRC Research Grant between 2008 and 2011. It has investigated theatre censorship in Spain during the Second Republic, the civil war, the Franco dictatorship and the transition to democracy, as well as making connections with censorship in other times and places. This research has given rise to:

• an international conference
• numerous seminars and public lectures
• an edited book, Global Insights on Theatre Censorship
• journal articles and book chapters
• a monograph, Theatre Censorship in Spain, 1931-1985
• and 'impact' work with schools and theatre companies.

I have also published on the work of individual playwrights, especially Federico García Lorca, Antonio Buero Vallejo, José María Rodríguez Méndez and Paloma Pedrero. I have a particular interest in historical theatre and in cinematic adaptations of history plays.

I have an interest in translation, especially of drama. I have translated plays by Buero Vallejo and Paloma Pedrero, and in 2009 published the revised edition of the widely used textbook Thinking Spanish Translation (with Louise Haywood). I developed a successful undergraduate Spanish Translation module, and have taught Spanish-English translation on the MA in Translation Studies. My translation of Clara Díaz's new play Canción para un niño descalzo (Song for a Barefoot Boy) will be performed by the Cervantes Theatre in London in 2023.

I have also taught 20th- and 21st-century Spanish culture, especially theatre and literature.

• Modern Spanish culture
• Modern Spanish theatre
• Translation
• Theatre censorship

Available for media contact about:

• Foreign Literature & Language: Spanish theatre
• Foreign Literature & Language: Spanish language
• International: Language, literature, culture: Theatre censorship
• Foreign Literature & Language: Modern/contemporary Spanish literature

Authored book

• Haywood, Louise M., Thompson, Michael & Hervey, Sándor (2009). Thinking Spanish Translation. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
• Thompson, Michael P. (2007). Performing Spanishness: History, Cultural Identity and Censorship in the Theatre of José María Rodríguez Méndez. Bristol: Intellect.
• Perriam, C., Knights, V., Frenk, S. & Thompson, M. P. (2000). A New History of Spanish Writing, 1939 to the 1990s. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chapter in book

• Thompson, Michael (2018). "La totalidad de la obra se representará en perfecto castellano": Censorship of theatre in Catalonia after the civil war. In Catalan Culture: Experimentation, Creative Imagination and the Relationship with Spain. Davies, Lloyd Hughes, Walters, David Gareth & Hall, John B. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 35-59.
• Thompson, Michael (2016). Conclusion: The Power of Theatre. In Global Insights on Theatre Censorship. O'Leary, Catherine, Santos Sánchez, Diego & Thompson, Michael New York: Routledge. 32: 259-267.
• Santos Sánchez, Diego & Thompson, Michael (2016). Theatre censorship apparatuses: summaries of the systems discussed in this volume. In Global Insights on Theatre Censorship. O'Leary, Catherine, Santos Sánchez, Diego & Thompson, Michael New York: Routledge. 32: 24-31.
• Thompson, Michael (2009). Remembering What Didn’t Happen in the Civil War: 'Beatus Ille' and '¡Ay, Carmela!'. In Guerra y memoria en la España contemporánea = War and Memory in Contemporary Spain. Quance, Roberta Ribeiro de Menezes, Alison & Walsh, Anne L. Madrid: Verbum. 147-163.
• Thompson, Michael (2007). 'Una cosa ofensiva': la vanguardia teatral española frente a la censura (el caso de El hombre y la mosca). In Nuevas aportaciones a los estudios teatrales. Brioso, Héctor & Saval, José V. Alcalá de Henares: Universidad de Alcalá. 87-98.
• Thompson, Michael P. (2006). Feminismo y posmodernismo en el teatro de Paloma Pedrero: una revision. In El Próximo Acto: teatro español en el siglo XXI. Harper, Sandra Delaware, USA: Estreno.
• Thompson, Michael P. (2005). Un lugar atractivo e inquietante: encuentros en el parque en el teatro de Paloma Pedrero. In Dramaturgias femeninas en la segunda mitad del siglo XX: espacio y tiempo: actas del XIV Seminario Internacional del Centro de Investigación de Semiótica Literaria, Teatral y Nuevas Tecnologías, Madrid, UNED, 28 al 30 de junio de 2004. Romera Castillo, José. Madrid: Visor Libros. 565-576.
• Thompson, M.P. (2000). The Unbearable Hopefulness of Being: Utopia and tragedy in the theatre of Antonio Buero Vallejo. In Utopias. Le Saux, F. & Thomas, N. Durham: Durham Modern Languages Series. 175-186.
• Thompson, M.P. (1999). Cultural Identity in the Theatre of Rodríguez Méndez. In Entre Actos: Diálogos sobre teatro español entre siglos. Halsey, M. University Park, PA: Estreno. 293-300.
• Thompson, M.P. (1999). Poetry that Gets Up Off the Page and Becomes Human: Poetic Coherence and Eccentricity in Lorca's Theatre. In Fire, Blood and the Alphabet: One Hundred Years of Lorca. Doggart, S. & Thompson, M.P. Durham: Durham Modern Languages Series. 67-79.
• Thompson, M.P. (1996). La mirada imperfecta: Metateatro en El tragaluz. In El teatro de Buero Vallejo: Homenaje del Hispanismo británico e irlandés. Dixon, V. & Johnston, D. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 175-195.
• Perriam, C., Frenk, S. & Thompson, M.P. (1995). The literary avant-garde: A contradictory modernity. In Spanish Cultural Studies: An Introduction. Graham, H. & Labanyi, J. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 63-69.
• Thompson, M.P. (1993). El mito del Descubrimiento y el descubrimiento del mito en el teatro español contemporáneo. In Actas del Primer Congreso Anglo-Hispano. Deyermond, A. & Penny, R. Madrid: Castalia. 2: 261-271.
• Thompson, M.P. (1991). El teatro histórico de Rodríguez Méndez. In Última batalla en El Pardo. Rodríguez Méndez, J.M. Madrid: Centro de Documentación Teatral. 9-17.

Edited book

• O'Leary, Catherine, Santos Sánchez, Diego & Thompson, Michael (2016). Global Insights on Theatre Censorship. Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies. Routledge.
• Archer, Robert, Astvaldsson, Astvaldur, Boyd, Stephen & Thompson, Michael (2005). Antes y después del Quijote: Actas del congreso 2005 de la Asociación de Hispanistas de Gran Bretaña e Irlanda. Valencia: Biblioteca Valenciana.
• Doggart, Sebastian & Thompson, Michael (1999). Fire, Blood and the Alphabet: One Hundred Years of Lorca. Durham: Durham Modern Languages Series.

Journal Article

• Thompson, Michael (2012). The Effect of Censorship on the Construction of Character in Spanish Theater during the Franco Dictatorship. Estreno: Cuadernos de teatro español contemporáneo 2: 70-86.
• Thompson, Michael. (2012). The Order of the Visible and the Sayable: Theatre Censorship in Twentieth-Century Spain. Hispanic Research Journal 13(2): 93-110.
• Thompson, Michael P. (2004). Rodríguez Méndez en el laberinto de la censura: el confuso expediente sobre Historia de unos cuantos. Estreno: cuadernos del teatro espanol contemporaneo 30(1): 19-27.
• Thompson, Michael P. (2001). The Interplay of Theatrical Codes in Rafael Alberti's De un momento a otro. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 78: 355-365.
• Thompson, M.P. (1996). Iberismo and machismo español in the Theater of Martín Recuerda and Rodríguez Méndez. Estreno 22(2): 35-44.
• Thompson, M.P. (1995). Theatrical and cinematic framing in Buero Vallejo's Un soñador para un pueblo and Molina's Esquilache. Romance Studies 26: 61-76.

Translated Book

• Thompson, M.P. (trans.) (1994). Antonio Buero Vallejo, Un soñador para un pueblo = A Dreamer for the People. [Thompson, M.P. trans. and ed.] . Warminster: Aris & Phillips

Translated Chapter in Book

• Thompson, Michael (trans.) (2016). Arrabal, Fernando, 'The dictator’s gift of censorship '. In Global Insights on Theatre Censorship. O'Leary, Catherine, Santos Sánchez, Diego & Thompson, Michael (ed.). New York: Routledge. 35-42