Spanish Theater Before and After 1936: A Historical Overview

Posted on Oct 17, 2024 in Latin

Spanish Theater Before 1936

Early 20th Century Trends

Commercial Theater

Specific circumstances shaped early 20th-century Spanish theater:

  1. Plays were conceived for stage representation, with many never published or having little impact.
  2. Commercial success depended on factors beyond artistic merit, such as the support of influential figures.
  3. Audiovisual performances reached wider audiences, but faced increased censorship under dictatorships.

Spanish theater in the first third of the century was unique. Plays often represented social problems.

Successful Theater

Three main currents characterized successful theater:

  1. Comedia burguesa (Bourgeois comedy): Also known as Benaventine comedy, it reflected the bourgeois tastes of the time. Content focused on upper-class conflicts like infidelity and heartbreak. The style was dramatic, with witty language and irony, but lacking social critique.
  2. Teatro poético (Poetic theater): Also called modernista theater, it used varied verse, musicality, exotic settings, and rhetorical characters. It represented a break from traditional theater and reflected the spirit of the Generation of ’98. Authors like Eduardo Marquina explored nostalgic themes of Spain’s imperial past.
  3. Teatro cómico (Comic theater): Popular among the general public, it included genres like zarzuela, café-teatro, and sainetes. The Álvarez Quintero brothers set their plays in Andalusia, filled with topical humor and happy endings. Grotesque tragedies, like those by Carlos Arniches, portrayed the harsh realities of rural Spain with a comic tone.

Innovative Theater

Two important innovators emerged during this period:

  1. Valle-Inclán and the esperpento: Considered one of the most important Spanish playwrights of the 20th century, Valle-Inclán’s esperpentos distorted reality to critique society. Characters were often grotesque and dehumanized, reflecting the author’s ironic perspective.
  2. García Lorca and the Restoration of Tragedy: Lorca initially focused on poetic modernist theater, but after returning from New York, he sought to renew the genre. His rural tragedies incorporated elements of popular culture, music, and poetic language, focusing on social issues and female characters.

Other innovations included attempts by Generation of ’98 authors to renew theater, and the work of Ramón Gómez de la Serna.

Post-1936 Theater

Theater in Exile

Four main streams emerged in theater created by exiles:

  1. Political theater, following the tradition of Arniches.
  2. Realistic theater, ranging from avant-garde to social realism (Max Aub).
  3. Existentialist theater, exploring themes of love and death (Pedro Salinas).
  4. Poetic or symbolist theater, exemplified by Alejandro Casona, known for works like “The Suicide of Powell in Spring”.

Bourgeois Drama

Influenced by Benavente, this type of theater served as escapism during Franco’s regime. It featured upper-middle-class characters, elegant settings, and conflicts resolved with a moral lesson.

Theater of Humor

This genre included the prolific but inconsequential work of Alfonso Paso, the absurdist humor of Jardiel Poncela, and the innovative work of Miguel Mihura, a precursor to the humorous renewal.

Realistic and Committed Theater

This movement began in 1949 with Antonio Buero Vallejo’s “Historia de una escalera”. Two main approaches emerged:

  1. Alfonso Sastre’s radical theater of social unrest, which faced censorship.
  2. Buero Vallejo’s “possible theater,” which used historical contexts to subtly convey messages while complying with censorship.

Experimental Theater

This movement rejected realism and embraced international avant-garde influences, including the theater of Bertolt Brecht, the theater of the absurd, and the theater of cruelty. In Spain, groups like Els Comediants and La Cuadra emerged.

Late 20th Century Spanish Scene

This period saw great diversity but few young authors. Realistic themes prevailed, with playwrights like Fernando Fernán Gómez and Antonio Gala. Theater groups like La Fura dels Baus and Dagoll Dagom also gained prominence.