20th Century Spanish Drama Before 1939: From Modernism to Lorca
20th Century Spanish Drama Before 1939
Late 19th and Early 20th Century
In the late 19th century, Spanish theatre was dominated by “high comedy” as represented by Echegaray and his followers. These melodramas sought to thrill audiences with dramatic effects and often gory scenes. However, the evolving public taste and limited interest from theatre managers prevented significant renewal of the theatre scene.
The first third of the 20th century saw the survival of several theatrical trends:
- Bourgeois comedy (including rural high comedy and drama)
- Farce, particularly from Madrid and Andalusia, which evolved into forms like grotesque tragedy and astrakhan.
- Modernist drama, which emerged in reaction to realistic theatre. This movement embraced poetic and symbolic language, often utilizing verse as the primary vehicle for dramatic expression, and presented an idealized vision of the story.
The most significant attempts at theatrical renewal came from the Generation of ’98 (Unamuno, Azorín, and Valle-Inclán initially) and, in the 1930s, from the poets of the Generation of ’27, including Federico García Lorca. However, few of their works were actually staged.
The Theatre of the Generation of ’98
Beyond commercial considerations, authors like Unamuno, Azorín, Valle-Inclán, and Jacinto Grau aimed to create theatre that explored religious, existential, and social conflicts. Valle-Inclán particularly focused on social issues.
Their theatre was intellectually and philosophically complex, drawing on and renewing Western theatrical trends. Technically, they sought to break with realistic forms of representation, with Ramón del Valle-Inclán being a prominent innovator.
Valle-Inclán
Valle-Inclán’s diverse literary output included novels, short stories, poetry, and plays. His work reflects an ideological evolution, moving from a nostalgic and elegant modernism (e.g., “Sonatas,” 1902-1905) to a critical style that distorted reality (“Esperpentos,” from 1920). His plays are often categorized into three cycles:
- Myth: Set in a mythical, timeless Galicia (e.g., Comedia Bárbara, Divinas Palabras).
- Farce: Situated in a more “ridiculous” world reminiscent of 18th-century settings (e.g., La Marquesa Rosalinda, Farsa y licencia de la Reina Castiza).
- Grotesque: Includes works like Luces de Bohemia (1920) and the “Martes de Carnaval” trilogy (Los cuernos de don Friolera, 1921; Las galas del difunto, 1926; La hija del capitán, 1927).
The grotesque style aimed to present Spanish reality in an exaggerated and burlesque manner, distorting it to shock audiences and raise awareness. This approach shares similarities with Bertolt Brecht’s later “distancing effect.” By creating an unusual and surprising stage world, Valle-Inclán encouraged viewers to connect it to their own reality and recognize its own unusual aspects.
Valle-Inclán’s grotesque theatre (excluding works like the poem “Romance de lobos” and the novels “Tirano Banderas” and “La corte de los milagros”) critiques a false reality and outdated values. This reflects the critical attitude of the Generation of ’98, which Valle-Inclán embraced after a period of writing focused on aristocracy and idealized settings. However, his criticism differed from the typical approach of the Generation of ’98.
Luces de Bohemia
Luces de Bohemia marks the beginning of Valle-Inclán’s aesthetic of the grotesque. The play follows the final journey of Max Estrella, a blind poet, and his companion, Latino de Hispalis, through the night in Madrid (from dusk to dawn).
Max Estrella, after being denied a decent living for his family, arrested, humiliated, and forced to accept a meager pension, dies leaning against a doorframe, betrayed and robbed by his guide.
Many fictional characters in the play are based on real people of the time, and there are also direct references to historical figures like Unamuno, Alfonso XIII, Pastora Imperio, Antonio Maura, and Joselito.
Theatre of the Generation of ’27
While poetry was the primary focus of the Generation of ’27, several members explored theatre. Notable works include those by Pedro Salinas (La cabeza de la Medusa), Rafael Alberti (El hombre deshabitado), Miguel Hernández (El labrador de más aire), and Alejandro Casona (La dama del alba).
Federico García Lorca
Lorca’s dramatic works can be divided into three phases:
Early Plays
In 1920, Lorca premiered El maleficio de la mariposa, a modernist play about the love between a cockroach and a butterfly, which introduced a recurring theme in his work: unfulfilled romantic love. Despite its initial failure, Lorca soon found success with Mariana Pineda, a historical drama based on the heroine executed by Fernando VII for embroidering a liberal flag. These two works were followed by tragic farces about unhappy love affairs: La zapatera prodigiosa and Amor de Don Perlimplín con Belisa en su jardín. During this period, Lorca also wrote several puppet plays, collectively titled “El retablillo de Don Cristóbal,” which explored another central theme in his drama: the conflict between authority and freedom.
Avant-Garde Theatre
Influenced by surrealism, Lorca referred to this phase as “impossible comedy” or “mystery.” Surrealist techniques allowed him to explore the hidden instincts of humanity. In El público (unfinished), Lorca examines instinctive love beyond conscious control, including homosexual love, and criticizes a society that condemns those who are different.
Mature Plays
In the 1930s, Lorca wrote plays that achieved commercial success: Bodas de sangre, Yerma, Doña Rosita la soltera o el lenguaje de las flores, and La casa de Bernarda Alba. These plays share a common focus on the role of women and their social marginalization.
Bodas de sangre and Yerma are tragedies with a classical feel. Lorca blends prose and verse, utilizes a chorus reminiscent of Greek tragedy, and employs symbolism and allegory. Bodas de sangre (in which a bride runs away with her former lover on her wedding day) explores familiar Lorca themes: love, violence, death, and the social norms that repress instincts. Yerma addresses other key Lorca themes: infertility, female oppression, and the desire for fulfillment that clashes with traditional morality. Doña Rosita la soltera is an urban drama, also written in prose and verse, but here the verse serves to satirize and parody the situation of single women in the provinces who wait in vain for love in a stifling bourgeois environment. It explores the “drama of Spanish kitsch, Spanish bigotry,” as Lorca himself described it.