Spanish Theater Before 1936: Benavente, Valle-Inclán, and Lorca
Pre-Theater 1936
In the theater before the Civil War, two orientations are distinguished: a commercial theater and a theater of renovation. The commercial theater includes works that respond to the more conventional tastes of the audience of the time:
- Bourgeois ambiance comedies (Roses of Autumn) and rural melodramas (The Unloved) by Jacinto Benavente.
- Comic drama by Carlos Arniches (Caciques) and brothers Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero (Those of Cain).
Two works stand out above the others: Benavente’s The Vested Interest and Arniches’ Mademoiselle de Trévelez. In the first, he criticizes the hypocrisy of the bourgeois society governed by expediency and money, depending on the immorality and idleness of the young provincial bourgeoisie, attuned to the regeneration of the authors of ’98. The more complex and innovative works are by F. García Lorca and Valle-Inclán.
Valle-Inclán’s Theater
Valle-Inclán is the creator of a new formulation of theater that is called esperpento. The deformation is a grotesque caricature of reality in order to highlight the absurdity and misery of existence. The procedures are:
- The recreation of violent and degraded environments.
- Animalization and objectification of the characters.
The most successful manifestation is Bohemian Lights. In this work, he makes a critique of the politics and social reality of Spain at the time. This topic allows the author to ground in the generation of ’98.
García Lorca’s Theater
García Lorca is the dramatist of Generation ’27. The theme of his theater is the frustration that comes from the clash between two forces:
- An erotic desire and vital freedom, almost always embodied in a female: Adela in The House of Bernarda Alba, the bride in Blood Wedding, Rosita in Doña Rosita the Spinster, the protagonist of Yerma.
- Reality (society, tradition, fate) that opposes the fulfillment of those impulses.
Features of Lorca’s Theater
- Use of verse and prose. Some works, like Mariana Pineda, are written entirely in verse. In other farces, like The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife or The Love of Don Perlimplín with Belisa in the Garden, prose and verse alternate.
- Importance of nonverbal cues (music, dance, costumes, lighting), from a conception of theater as a total show.
- Using a message of poetic intensity, saturated with similes, metaphors, and symbols.
Arguments
- The Vested Interest: The action takes place in early 17th-century Italian cities where two rogues, Leandro and Crispín, arrive with the intention of thriving. Crispín poses as the servant of Leandro and plots the relationship between Leandro and Silvia, the daughter of the wealthy Polichinela. True love emerges among the young people, and while Polichinela discovers the deceit, the wedding is held for the benefit of all.
- Mademoiselle de Trévelez: A group of youngsters, the Banter Club, plays a cruel joke on the maid, making her believe a gallant falls for her.
Other Works of Valle-Inclán
Some works are set in a primitive, mythical Galicia governed by irrational forces such as greed or lust. These are Barbaric Comedies and Divine Words. The grotesque technique appears in Shrove Tuesday and Altar of Greed, Lust, and Death.
Bohemian Lights
The work presents, in 14 scenes, the last night of Max Estrella’s life, a blind poet and failed bohemian from Madrid. Accompanied by Don Latino de Hispalis, Max runs through old bookstores, cafes, taverns, dungeons, and ministerial offices, until his death in the street, almost at dawn. Don Latino then steals the portfolio, where he keeps a lottery ticket which, ironically, will be awarded. The play ends with the news of what happened to Madame Collet, Max’s wife, and their daughter, Claudinita.
Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)
Federico García Lorca was born in Fuentevaqueros, Granada. Between 1919 and 1928, he lived in the Student Residence in Madrid, where he met Buñuel and Dalí. He traveled through America (New York, Buenos Aires) and directed the theater group La Barraca. He returned to Granada in 1936, where he died, killed shortly after the start of the Civil War. He was part of the Generation of ’27.