Urban legends of Madrid: The Ghost Actress of the Lara TheatreNamed after his founder and patron, C&
Urban legends of Madrid: The Ghost Actress of the Lara TheatreNamed after his founder and patron, Cándido Lara, the Lara Theatre was built in 1879. It was one of the many little theatres that abounded in Madrid during the last decades of the 19th Century. The Lara has known hard times, especially after the Spanish Civil War, this time not because of the sequels of war themselves but because Mrs. Milagros Lara (Cándido’s daughter and heiress)’s last will was to demolish it. Closed in 1985, it was reopened almost one decade later. Unlike other similar theatres, the Lara manages to survive.Apart from its “secret” passages that aren’t a secret for anyone, legend wants the theatre is inhabited by the ghost of Lola Membrives (1888-1969), an Argentinian actress who spent part of her career in Spain, starring in plays by Lorca, Benavente or Machado, and playing the great roles from the classic Spanish repertoire, from Calderón to Lope. Membrives later returned to her hometown, Buenos Aires, where a theatre is named after her. But apparently part of the actress’ soul remained in Madrid. Lola’s ghost likes to sing from her dressing room when the theatre is empty and closed to public, and there are people who will swear her voice can be heard from the stage. It is said, also, that she will be furious if she doesn’t like the expositions that are held in one of the theatre’s halls.Fun fact: the ghost of Membrive’s colleague and contemporary Margarita Xirgu is said to haunt the Romea Theatre in Barcelona. -- source link
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