20th Century Spanish Theater: From Censorship to Innovation
If the abolition of censorship is important for all genres, it is much more so for the theater since, with its disappearance, many of the works that had previously been banned will be on stage, such as Architect and the Emperor of Assyria or Arrabal’s The pious arrecogías of St. Mary of Egypt, as Martin recalls. You can add to this nascent freedom the creation of companies with government subsidies, the proliferation of shows and fairs… all causing a flourishing theater.
The Transition and Beyond
During the Transition, two currents survive: the realistic aesthetic of works more or less socially committed, such as those by Buero Vallejo, Gala, Olmo, and Martin, and the so-called “New Theater” (Rubial, Riaz) who insist on moving away from figuration and delving into experimental paths. But undoubtedly the main contribution of the last twenty years is the creation of independent companies, from the participatory comedy (The Cuban) to the challenging (La Fura dels Baus) or musical (Dagoll-Dagom), seeking new forms of expression that aspire to represent a total spectacle.
The 1980s: New Theater and Poetic Realism
In the eighties, the two aforementioned groups survive. On the one hand, authors like Alfredo Amestoy and Sergi Belbel continue the tenets of “New Theater” (use of symbols, presentation of dream worlds, use of cinematic techniques, theater of the absurd), and on the other hand, authors with a more realistic cut, such as Alonso de Santos, Sanchos, and Sinisterra, revitalize farce, the grotesque, the comedy of manners… giving their plays a poetic realism.
However, certain characteristics common to all of them can be argued:
- Personal disappointment has led them not to believe in the transformation of society, and this is reflected in their work because their theater is not intended, as it was in the sixties, to help transform society.
- They forget the great collective problems and delve into the realm of the everyday. Small personal conflicts of the individual human being are staged: the search for identity, the difficulty in dealing… Technically, they use short dialogues and colloquial language.
- Metatheatre appears, that is, the reflection on the essence of theater as a theme, especially in Sanchís Sinisterra, whose two most emblematic works, Ñaque and Ay Carmela, or the actors’ lice, refer to this issue.
- The comic is the means used to locate some distance from the problems of everyday life. A laugh at himself with irony, if not, with black humor.
The Rise of “Historic Theater”
An important current at the end of the decade is “historic theater,” which seeks, through a set of multiple perspectives, to present events and ask the public to come to their own conclusions.
The 1990s: Continuity and New Directions
During the nineties, there is a continuity with the previous decade, but new ways emerge from the dramatic conception that the author is not the demiurge who handles all the threads of the story. They advocate a theater in which the stage show has as much value as the word and in which the viewer is considered a co-creator of the work.
Prominent Authors and Trends
As outstanding authors, we can highlight Alonso de Santos, who revitalizes the sainete theater that presents existential conflicts, often of the marginalized, in a tone of ironic and often macabre humor. Vallecas the tobacconist and Get off the Moor are two emblematic works of this trend. Sanchis Sinisterra, already mentioned, is the referent of metatheatre. His dramas, in a realistic tone, try to delve into the essence of theatricality. Paloma Pedrero’s plays (The call of Lauren, Crazy in love) move in a realistic perception of the world and delve into the psychology of characters, psychologically and socially displaced. Sergi Belbel achieves great dramas (Pats, Blood) by insight into human conflicts and the difficult relationship this has with his peers.
Collective Theater Groups
Also appearing in this period, as outlined above, are collective theater groups whose background is the goliards, companies created with the aim of representing non-commercial theater throughout the Spanish geography. However, due to internal problems, the group’s importance lies more in its pioneering role than in its success. It will be in Barcelona where these companies achieve greater resonance. Boadella’s Joglars set the standard to follow. Among his greatest hits is Ubu President, a political farce of extreme nationalism that takes aim at the then President Pujol. La Cubana, whose audio-visual entertainment becomes an important part of the representation. This happens in Blinded by love, one of his greatest hits, or Cómeme coconut, black, his first success, which already marks the hallmarks of his theater: provocation and sharing with the public. We should also mention Els Comediants, Dagoll-Dagom, specializing in musical productions, who achieved great success with Pirates, and La Fura dels Baus, whose outdoor shows encourage the active and sometimes violent participation of the public.
Commercial Theater and Escapism
Finally, we should review the presence of a commercial theater whose sole purpose is to entertain, that is, to make the viewer evade reality during the performance. Santiago Moncada well summarizes the budgets for this comedy of evasion and the mechanisms put into play to get the answer that pleases the public as success. To this end, these plays deal with topics of surefire appeal, including prevailing gender relations and their erotic derivations, and devoid of any problems… This occurs in almost all the comedies of Moncada himself, such as The girl of no return, which also initiates a series of archetypes of the seducer. The development of the piece and its progression is based on dialogue. The verbal is so essential that many external events are only retrieved using the word, without representation on the stage.