Spanish Theater from 1940 to the Present
Introduction
During the Civil War, theater served as a means of political propaganda. The post-war period was catastrophic: authors died (e.g., Valle-Inclán, Lorca), many went into exile (e.g., Alberti, Casona), and those who remained in Spain (e.g., J. Álvarez Quintero, Arniches, Benavente) either abandoned playwriting or premiered few works.
Theater, like other arts, was subject to censorship. Genres and topics reflected the times. In the immediate post-war period, the baroque tradition of allegorical drama served as a model for the new system. A heroic-patriotic theater emerged (e.g., Gonzalo Torrente Ballester), alongside high comedy (e.g., Luca de Tena, Edgar Neville) and the musical revue (e.g., Antonio Lara Tone).
In the late 1940s, the early works of Antonio Buero Vallejo and Alfonso Sastre offered new approaches to theater, focusing on existential and social themes with a more refined language. A group of realist authors followed during the 1950s and 1960s, working under difficult conditions.
Since the democratic transition, the Spanish theatrical scene has changed. Dramatic texts by deceased or exiled authors (e.g., Lorca, Valle-Inclán, Alberti) and previously prohibited works (e.g., Sastre, Nieva, Olmo, Arrabal, Martín Recuerda) were revived. Independent theater groups became more professional, forming stable companies, and new authors emerged. This dramatic theater incorporated innovations from European and American writers and directors, coexisting with a theater of consumption. From the 1980s, institutional support for theater grew.
Theater of Consumption
The 1950s: “High” Comedy
In the 1940s and 1950s, a bourgeois drama was popular. This inconsequential comedy, a continuation of Benavente’s style, focused on bourgeois themes like honor, jealousy, and infidelity, always reaching a happy ending. These plays demonstrated mastery of technique.
Prominent authors include J. Mª. Pemán (The Widow Shipping, 1960), Claudio de la Torre, Ruiz Iriarte (1912), José López Rubio (Air of Jealousy, 1950), and Edgar Neville (1899-1967), who wrote a “comedy of illusion” with proper tone, elegance, and smoothness. Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena (1897-1975), with Alfonso XII, Where Are You? (1957), and Joaquín Calvo Sotelo (The Wall), with a comedy of manners and psychological themes, also fit within this style.
In the 1960s, authors like Alfonso Paso, Jaime Salom, Ana Diosdado, and Jaime de Armiñán continued this bourgeois drama.
Comedy
Two outstanding authors, Miguel Enrique Jardiel Poncela and Miguel Mihura, innovated humor, anticipating the “theater of the absurd” with farce and satire.
Enrique Jardiel Poncela premiered comedies continuously from 1927 (A Spring Without Sleep). Between 1939 and 1952, he wrote twenty humorous plays. Jardiel sought originality, unusual situations and characters, and embraced absurdity. Notable works include Heloise is Under an Almond Tree (1939), his best work, and The Thieves Are Honest People (1941).
Miguel Mihura, a director and writer for humor magazines (most popularly, La Codorniz), wrote Three Hats in 1932. Mihura evolved into a more commercial style, surprising audiences with unusual spontaneity and conflicts, but also developing characters with credibility and tenderness. He humanized his characters, confronting a stunted world stifled by prejudice. Notable works include Neither Poor Nor Rich But Quite the Contrary and The Case of the Little Assassinated Woman.
Attempts at Renewal
Regarding non-commercial theater, the New Art Group represents the first attempt at experimental art-house theater. It lasted two years and staged 23 plays, including works by Alfonso Sastre.
Other groups, such as the TEU (Spanish University Theater) and the WGR (Realistic Theater Group), failed due to financial problems and censorship.
In 1945, the Lope de Vega Prize was revived, and in 1949…
The Realistic Drama of Antonio Buero Vallejo
History of a Staircase (1949), Antonio Buero Vallejo’s first work, offered the first non-idealized version of reality in the postwar period. Its dramatic structure is close to farce. It explored the bitterness, hope, and frustrations of a stagnant society.
Buero Vallejo’s production can be divided into three stages:
a) Realistic Stage: Works focused on contemporary reality, including History of a Staircase (1949) and Today is a Holiday (1956).
b) Historical Reflection Stage: Beginning in 1958, Buero Vallejo wrote historical plays to reflect on the present and circumvent censorship. This stage includes A Dreamer for a People (1958).