20th-Century Spanish Theater: An Overview
1940s: Theater in Times of War
The harsh conditions of World War II significantly impacted literature and theater. Authors faced scarcity, strict censorship, and a new competitor: cinema.
Triumphant Theater
Dramatic forms and themes from before the Spanish Civil War continued. The “high comedy” of Jacinto Benavente, based on sharp and witty dialogue, did not see much innovation.
The postwar period saw a rise in humorous theater with playwrights like Enrique Jardiel Poncela and Miguel Mihura. Both sought humor in the absurd. However, Jardiel Poncela’s works were often denied performances, while Miguel Mihura’s plays, marked by their critique of power, faced challenges. His play “Three Top Hats” was particularly impactful. When the Spanish University Theater emerged in the 1950s, social drama focusing on human problems took center stage.
Postwar Theater: Buero Vallejo and Sastre
Antonio Buero Vallejo and Alfonso Sastre marked a departure from previous trends. Their works explored the possibilities and impossibilities of theater as a critical tool.
Buero Vallejo (known for plays like “The Skylight” and “Story of a Staircase”) employed a technique of theatrical immersion, where the audience observes the story from a character’s perspective.
Alfonso Sastre examined the human condition and societal relationships, creating a tragic theater of protest and social commentary.
From the 1960s Onward
Traditional dialogue-based theater continued with authors like Fernando Arrabal, whose play “Picnic on the Battlefield” was initially rejected by audiences and critics. Later, theater took on political overtones, reflecting the struggles of the time. This politically charged theater was banned in Spain until the arrival of democracy.
The Theater: General Features
Theater is a complex art form that combines verbal, visual, and auditory elements. This allows for analysis of both the theatrical text and the performance itself.
Dramatic Text Structure
The dramatic text can be structured into four levels:
- Distinctive Elements: This level differentiates dramatic texts from other genres and includes elements like action, characters, and situations.
- Formal Construction: This level encompasses the organization of the text into acts, scenes, and pictures.
- Forms of Expression: This level includes dialogue, monologue, asides, and chorus.
- Stage Directions: This level provides textual information related to the performance, such as setting, character actions, and lighting.
Elements of Text Structure
Distinctive Elements: Action and Characters
Action is a crucial element in drama. It is a process that unfolds through the resolution of situations within the play’s sequence. Characters, driven by their personal struggles, attempt to resolve these situations.
Formal Construction: Acts, Scenes, Pictures
The play’s structure is built through a sequence of units. The basic textual units in Western theater are acts, scenes, and pictures. A scene is a section of the play marked by the entrance or exit of characters. Acts are typically composed of a series of scenes, separated by breaks to reflect thematic or aesthetic shifts.
Forms of Expression: Monologue, Dialogue, and Aside
Dramatic tension is communicated through specific language forms. Dialogue is open communication between characters. Monologue is delivered by a character alone on stage. Asides allow characters to reveal their true feelings and thoughts to the audience without the other characters’ knowledge.
Stage Directions
Stage directions play a vital role in constructing dramatic works. They allow the author to specify actions, emotions, and technical aspects of the performance. Stage directions are typically enclosed in brackets within the text.
Theatrical Subgenres
Classic theatrical subgenres include drama, tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama, liturgical drama, and farce.
New dramatic genres emerged in contemporary theater, such as epic theater, theater of the absurd, and experimental theater. Alongside these contemporary forms, traditional theater persists.
Theatrical Performance
Theater involves transformation: everything that appears on stage carries meaning beyond its physical appearance. Alongside the dramatic text, elements like scenery, props, costumes, masks, sounds, smells, lights, music, silence, and dance become signs with their own significance.
The audience participates in the dramatic play by interpreting these signs. They understand that they are witnessing a representation of reality, not reality itself. Each theatrical experience invites the audience to look beyond the surface and engage with the deeper meanings of the performance.
This participation in the dramatic play has been fundamental to theater since its inception.