20th Century Spanish Theater to 1939
Introduction
In Spain, the development of theater is channeled by the social conditioning of its representation. The bourgeois public was not interested in social problems, and without these viewers, playwrights had no money to produce their work. Hence, producers sought concessions to what the public wanted.
The result was the impoverishment of Spanish theater. It became an unchanging theater, which turned its back on less conformist renewal movements. However, some authors tried to break that trend, rebelling against commercial theater.
Romantic drama evolved, with high comedy becoming its key point. Its main features are similar to those of the realist novel (contemporary setting, observation of the reality of the moment, and educational purpose by posing a moral argument). However, despite its realistic intention, it retains some elements of Romanticism (such as the presence of verse, the exaggerated effects of some scenes, and some sentimentality of a bourgeois character).
High comedy represented a shift in Spanish theater but failed to create truly transcendent works due to its moralizing character and the shallowness of the issues raised.
1. The Benaventine Comedy
Jacinto Benavente exemplifies the limitations of Spanish theater. The failure of The Nest of Another, a critical work analyzing the dark place occupied by middle-class women, led him to write other works more in line with the public he had to flatter. Since then, Benavente merely ensured the acceptance of his plays, which presented slightly conflicting problems prevailing in elegant, natural, and witty dialogue. His work includes bourgeois comedies and dramas such as The Unloved and Rural Vested Interests.
2. The Comedy of Manners
Another theatrical line is characterized by the quaint atmosphere of certain Spanish regions (Madrid, Barcelona), by the typical characters and their humorous language. Carlos Arniches reflects the customs of Madrid’s neighborhoods. Since 1916, he created a new genre, the tragicomic grotesque, with tragic and caricaturesque characters at once, as in Miss Trevélez. The brothers Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero wrote together about two hundred plays, sketches, and comedies of manners set in an unreal and topical Andalusia, such as Malvaloca.
3. Poetic Drama
This is a verse drama, influenced by Modernism and characterized by its historical and ideological conservatism. Eduardo Marquina cultivated this theater, as did the Machado brothers with La Lola se va a los puertos.
4. Renewed Attempts: The Generation of ’98
In the Generation of ’98, Ramón María del Valle-Inclán stands out.
4.1 The Plays of Valle-Inclán
His works, which remained outside the mainstream theater of his time, are considered today as those of an author who could see beyond his time for the following reasons: the bold originality of his works, the radical and uncompromising approach, the richness and expressiveness of his language, and his diverse themes and aesthetics. His life is peppered with anecdotes and fables that make it extremely attractive.
4.2 The Evolution of Valle-Inclán’s Theater
Valle-Inclán was much more radical in his critique of society, culture, and politics than the rest of the Generation of ’98. His tireless artistic quest led him through different stages:
- Valle-Inclán’s early theater is part of Modernism. The themes of escape, bright style, and rebellious attitude fall into some idealized and aesthetic works, which are conventional and rhetorical.
- The mythical cycle, with the Barbaric Comedy, is a trilogy consisting of Eagle’s Crest, Romance of Wolves, and Silver Face. In these plays, the characters act governed by instincts and violent passions, in a climate where superstitions and myths play a crucial role and contribute to the constant changes of scenery and abundance of characters. The culmination of this cycle is Divine Words. Evil, irrational, and monstrous characters populate this play, in which greed and lust trigger all conflicts.
- Simultaneously, Valle-Inclán develops a series of farces in which he implements a style he created called esperpento.
4.3 Esperpento
Esperpento criticizes Spanish society by facing reality and distorting it as if it were being seen through a concave mirror. The characters are grotesque beings in a grotesque world, but the author has a tender gesture toward them. The formal features are:
- The use of contrast between the grotesque and the painful, and between the tragic and the comic.
- The richness of language, carefully crafted and very personal, which is a stylization of different registers: popular talk, regionalisms, literary language, etc.
- The stage directions, acquiring literary value as descriptions.
- The many characters and the continuous changes in space and time.
Examples of grotesque works are:
- The Mardi Gras trilogy, consisting of Don Friolera’s Horns, The Trappings of the Deceased, and The Daughter of the Captain. The first is a parody of honor and the achievements of Calderón’s melodramatic theater.
- Bohemian Lights is the masterpiece of Valle-Inclán’s theater. Based on the life of the bohemian writer Alejandro Sawa, it depicts the last night of the poet Max Estrella. Accompanied by his guide, Don Latino de Hispalis, he visits various places in a nonsensical, brilliant, and hungry Madrid. More than 50 characters representing various social groups appear in the scenes. Tragic scenes are combined with grotesque ones. Bohemian Lights is a critique of Spain at the time, reflecting issues such as political corruption and bourgeois conformism.
5. The Theater of the Generation of ’27
In this generation, we find Alejandro Casona and Max Aub, but Federico García Lorca also stands out.
- Alejandro Casona, in exile, wrote some famous works that were released outside of Spain and later, upon his return, with great success.
- Max Aub is the author of a valuable theatrical production that includes avant-garde and anti-realist works and a great work focused on the horrors of war.
5.1 The Plays of Federico García Lorca
Lorca’s theater may properly be called poetic; its plots and language are born from poetics. The dominant theme is the clash between the individual and authority. The individual’s weapons are desire, love, and freedom, but they are defeated by authority. Female protagonists predominate in his plays.
5.1.1 Classification of Lorca’s Theater
His first dramatic attempt was an unsuccessful comedy, yet it already contained themes such as love, death, desire, and illusion.
Farces
The Tragicomedy of Don Cristobal and Doña Rosita is a puppet farce, like The Puppet Play of Don Cristobal. Both are two versions of the same story (a marriage of convenience). Other works deal with the traditional theme of the young woman married to an old man, provoking bitter laughter.
Lyrical Theater
Mariana Pineda, a popular romance in three acts, is a lyrical drama, representing the story of the heroine put to death for embroidering a Republican flag during the absolutism of Ferdinand VII.
Surrealist and Committed Theater
The Butterfly’s Evil Spell announced the shift to Surrealism. Two works testify to this change: The Public and Thus Five Years Pass. The first, with great technical complexity, unfolds the story of homosexual love, and the second is an impossible comedy, which cancels the spatial and temporal conventions of realistic theater. From 1935 is the unfinished Untitled Play; this work joins surreal features with social and didactic intent, directly addressing the public to propose the destruction of traditional theater.
Rural Dramas
Lorca’s most important works are the so-called Rural Trilogy: Blood Wedding, Yerma, and The House of Bernarda Alba. The three share common features: the sexual nature of the problems addressed, the woman as protagonist, the setting in the Andalusian countryside, and the tragic outcome.