A hundred-and-five years of Virgilio Piñera, l’enfant terrible of Cuban literature

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The sound of seats slamming up, shuffling feet exiting the theatre mid-performance and cries of disgust and disapproval are not the reactions a playwright would normally expect at a premiere. Yet this was the public’s response to Electra Garrigó, a play by the then 36-year-old Virgilio Piñera first staged in 1948. The sacrilegious writer had spat in…