See also: ¡Ay Carmela! (song) and ¡Ay Carmela!. ¡Ay, Carmela! is a play by José Sanchis Sinisterra, set in the opening months of the Spanish Civil War, which premiered 5 November 1987 in Zaragoza under José Luis Gómez, who also played Paulino. Heavily allegorical, it tells the story of travelling players, Carmela and Paulino, who blunder into the wrong place at the wrong time. A film of the same name — ¡Ay, Carmela! — was released in 1990. The play takes its name from a popular Spanish Civil war song Ay Carmela.
Originally written in Spanish, it toured in 2006 in the UK in English.[1]