20th Century Spanish Theater
1. Introduction
In the late nineteenth century, the Spanish theater scene was dominated by realistic drama and the works of José de Echegaray, who brought an exaggerated Romanticism to the stage, characterized by extreme passion, conflict, and expressive language and gestures. The realists and the fin de siècle writers rejected Echegaray’s dramaturgy and sought to replace it with new European trends represented by Ibsen and D’Annunzio, among others.
2. Panorama of Spanish Theater in the Early 20th Century
During the early decades of the twentieth century, despite persistent renewal efforts led by Valle-Inclán and Lorca (which generally met with little commercial success), the Spanish stage was dominated by commercial theater, most representatively by Jacinto Benavente. This section will analyze both trends.
Those who sought to renew the Spanish stage showed increased interest in scenery, particularly lighting, which highlighted the figures on stage. This gave new importance to the stage manager, a role previously indistinct from the lead actor or entrepreneur. However, productions favored by the public remained generally traditional.
2.1 Commercial Theater: Jacinto Benavente
Benavente’s dramas chronically explore the concerns and prejudices of his usual audience, the haute bourgeoisie, through irony. He conceived of drama as an instrument of illusion and escape. His natural, fluid dialogue stands out, tending towards sententious pronouncements.
Among his works, Vested Interests is a satire that explores the power of money through characters reminiscent of Italian comedy. Another notable work is The Malquerida, which presents the sense of honor as a characteristic of rural dramas. It portrays a stark world of feeling, with peasant characters embodying raw human passions. The language attempts to mimic popular speech, showcasing the struggle between passion and prohibition.
2.1.1 Comic Theater
Comic theater also enjoyed great public acceptance. These plays incorporated elements of poetry, music, song, and dance. Major subgenres within comic theater included vaudeville, a frivolous, light, and spicy comedy with a complex plot, and astrakhan, based on comic absurdity.
Prominent authors include the Álvarez Quintero brothers, who depicted life in a friendly and superficial manner with smooth action and humorous dialogue. Pedro Muñoz Seca, creator of astrakhan, also stands out. Another notable author is Carlos Arniches, who embraced broad farce and grotesque tragedy. A major work of his is The Chieftains.
2.2 Attempts at Renewal: Unamuno and Azorín
Unamuno championed an essential drama, far from stage decoration. He advocated for a bare, minimalist approach, reducing passions to their core and using schematic action. Azorín’s theater focused on experimentation and the search for another reality. He fought against naturalist aesthetics and championed an anti-realist theater that incorporated the subconscious, the dreamlike, and the fantastical. He considered the transformation of theatrical technique and structure necessary and emphasized the importance of the stage director. The basic themes of his plays are happiness, time, and death.
2.3 Valle-Inclán
Valle-Inclán brought absolute and radical originality to Spanish theater. His dramatic trajectory demonstrates a continuous desire for renewal and a thematic and formal rejection of the theater of his time. In his poetic dramas, realistic language and attitudes are treated ironically and caricatured. Valle-Inclán rejects the realistic system.
2.3.1 Decadentist Dramas
With these works, Valle-Inclán applied modernism to drama, but distanced himself from symbolist theater by incorporating realistic characters, language, and attitudes. In his early works (e.g., The Marquis de Bradomín), he dramatizes the nineteenth-century theme of adultery.
2.4 Galician Dramas
Works such as Divine Words and Barbaric Comedy share themes, characters, moods, and meanings, all located in a mythical and timeless Galicia. They represent an archaic society, chosen to offer a vision of a world governed by primal forces. Conflicts center on lust, pride, cruelty, despotism, sin, sacrilege, superstition, and magic.
2.5 Farces
Among his farces, The Marquise Rosalinda (his most modern work), Fable of the Head of the Dragon (referring to the economic situation in Spain), and Italian Farce of Love with the King (contrasting sentimentality and the grotesque) stand out. In these works, Valle-Inclán introduces characters from show business, using disguises and play-within-a-play to break the effect of reality on stage.
2.6 Esperpento
Valle-Inclán’s dramatic work culminates in esperpento, a term applied to four of his works: Bohemian Lights, The Horns of Don Friolera, The Trappings of the Deceased, and The Captain’s Daughter. The absurdity defined in Bohemian Lights constitutes an aesthetic related to a particular, critical vision of the world. Reality is systematically deconstructed and transformed, thus esperpento functions as a form of unmasking.
2.7 Lorca
Federico García Lorca’s poetic drama creates a true spectacle. Beyond words, music, dance, set design, and setting all contribute to the overall experience.
2.7.1 Early Farces
Lorca’s early dramas and tragedies, such as The Butterfly’s Evil Spell (which deals with the ideal of perfection far removed from everyday life) and Mariana Pineda (connected with historical drama in verse), are related to modernist theater. His four farces explore the conflict arising from marriages of convenience between the old and the young. These include puppet farces and farces for people, the latter including The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife, The Love of Don Perlimplín with Belisa in His Garden.
2.8 Impossible Comedies
Under the heading of impossible theater (Thus Five Years Pass, The Public, and Untitled Comedy), Lorca shows the influence of surrealism. This theater features the breaking of space-time logic, split personalities, and multiple interpretations.
2.9 Tragedies and Dramas
Lorca’s tragedies and dramas are his most famous works, notably Blood Wedding (dramatizing the power of passion, sex, and wealth), Yerma (where sterility is presented as a curse), and The House of Bernarda Alba (exploring the struggle between authority and freedom). These tragedies are set in rural environments where natural forces impose a tragic destiny. The plot is of little importance; there are few main characters, and choruses play a significant role.