History of Spanish Theater: From Medieval to 18th Century
Medieval Theater
Originating from religious celebrations, medieval theater stemmed from the dramatization of liturgical ceremonies within churches. The oldest example is the Auto de los Reyes Magos (Auto or Representation of the Three Kings) from the second half of the 12th century.
After a 250-year hiatus, theatrical activity resurfaced in the latter half of the 15th century with short plays like Gómez Manrique’s Representación del Nacimiento de Nuestro Señor (Representation of the Birth of Our Lord). These lyric-dramatic poems, with minimal action, didn’t represent significant progress.
At the end of the 15th century, under Ferdinand and Isabella’s reign, a courtly theater emerged, connected to the nobility and detached from reality. Two popular dramatic types arose: religious plays (autos sacramentales) and secular, humanistic plays with pastoral and love themes. Key figures include Juan del Encina, Gil Vicente, and Fernando de Rojas, author of La Celestina.
Renaissance Theater (16th Century)
Renaissance theater blended medieval and Renaissance elements, manifesting in four forms:
- Popular drama: Featuring comedic forms, it incorporated recurring characters from the Commedia dell’Arte, often improvising daily.
- Religious theater: Continuing the medieval tradition, it focused on the lives of saints.
- Humanistic theater: Imitating classical comedy and tragedy.
- National theater: Drawing from stories, romances, and epic tradition.
Baroque Theater (17th Century)
Baroque theater reached remarkable heights. Lope de Vega recognized that Spanish theater should move beyond classical imitation and forge its own path with a “new comedy” and “new art.” His ability to harmonize diverse elements and cater to public taste led to the establishment of permanent theaters (corrales de comedias).
Lope de Vega’s Arte Nuevo de Hacer Comedias (New Art of Making Comedies) outlined a new dramatic formula:
Features of the New Comedy
- Structure: Three acts (beginning, middle, end), rejecting the unities of action, time, and place. Parallel plots (high and low characters), spanning years and diverse locations. Mixing tragic and comic elements. Varied poetic style (decorum) adapting to each character.
- Verse forms: Romance for narratives, sonnets for soliloquies, décimas for laments, tercetos for serious conversations, and redondillas for love dialogues. Lyrical elements like songs and dances.
- Characters: High-born (old man, gallant, lady), low-born (gracioso/funny man, maid). The gallant is brave and idealistic, while the gracioso is his realistic, cowardly counterpart. A similar parallel exists between the lady and her maid.
Themes and Subgenres
- Religious plays (autos sacramentales)
- Historical plays based on national legends
- Comedies of manners (urban “cloak and dagger” and rural)
- Honor plays
- Love plays
Two main schools emerged: Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca.
Differences Between Lope and Calderón
- Calderón initially followed Lope’s style but enhanced its richness.
- Later, Calderón shifted towards reflective, philosophical theater, with characters symbolizing universal values.
- Calderón employed greater artifice in plot, structure, and language.
- Calderón reduced the number of characters and anecdotes.
Works of Lope de Vega
- El Perro del Hortelano (The Dog in the Manger)
- Fuenteovejuna
Works of Calderón
- La Vida es Sueño (Life is a Dream)
- El Alcalde de Zalamea (The Mayor of Zalamea)
- El Gran Teatro del Mundo (The Great Theatre of the World)
18th Century Theater
The 18th century saw a clash between proponents of Baroque theater and Neoclassicism. Neoclassicists, like Ignacio de Luzán in his Poética, criticized Baroque theater for disregarding rules of composition, realism, and morality, advocating a return to Aristotelian principles.
Alongside Neoclassicism, the sainete, a short, comic play depicting daily life and customs, flourished, with Ramón de la Cruz as its main representative. Leandro Fernández de Moratín combined neoclassical ideology with popular appeal. His didactic comedies satirized behaviors stemming from ignorance and bad manners.
Works of Leandro Fernández de Moratín
- El Viejo y la Niña (The Old Man and the Girl)
- El Barón (The Baron)
- La Mojigata (The Prude)
- La Comedia Nueva (The New Comedy)