SOURCE: "Coetaneity: A Sign of Crisis in Un niño azul para esa sombra." in Latin American Theater Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, Fall 1983, pp. 37-45.

In the following essay, Reynolds discusses the chronological presentation and psychological effect of Un niño azul para esa sombra.

René Marqués' play, Un niño azul para esa sombra, written in 1958, won the "Eugenio Fernández Garcia" theatre prize that same year in the Ateneo Puertorriqueño's Christmas Festival. This play, produced two years later during the Third Theatre Festival sponsored by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, is, according to Frank Dauster, "probably Marqués' best play" and "one of the best in Latin America." Like several of Marqués' plays, it is thematically based on previously-written short stories—in this case, "La sala," "El niño en el árbol" and, perhaps, "El juramento."

The play tells the story of the...