Spanish Theater: Post-Civil War to Late 20th Century
Spanish Theater in the Second Half of the 20th Century
Theater in Exile. At the end of the civil war, Lorca had been killed, and Valle-Inclan had passed away. Established figures went into exile. The theater began to recover, closely watched by censors, leading to new trends and figures.
Teatro de Humor
In this mode, two trends emerged:
- The first trend kept the Spanish scene away from real issues. Alfonso Paso cultivated a gentle, evasive, and somewhat witty comedy.
- In response, a radically innovative theater emerged.
- Enrique Jardiel Poncela broke with conventional humor, premiering “Four Hearts with Brake and Reverse Gear,” a work that explored the absurd and improbable, dramatizing the adventures of people who grew younger with time.
- Miguel Mihura wrote one of the masterpieces of contemporary Spanish theater, “Three Top Hats,” which did not premiere until nearly twenty years later.
Realistic and Committed Theater
With “Historia de una escalera” by Antonio Buero Vallejo, realistic drama centered on political commitment and social criticism broke through. Its presence was limited due to censorship. Buero Vallejo defended theater as a means to fight injustice, using historical characters and situations to convey messages about present-day evils.
Experimental Theater
In the late sixties, authors attempted to move away from realism, influenced by contemporary universal theater:
- The epic theater of the absurd, reflecting the meaninglessness of human existence through works with inconsistent arguments and characters in crazy scenarios.
- Theater of cruelty, using violence and macabre elements to jolt the viewer and expose hidden realities of the unconscious.
- Independent theater, which proliferated in the last years of Franco, with groups formed by young academic critics, some of which remain active.
Among the Spanish avant-garde playwrights:
- Francisco Nieva, who combined foreign influences with a deep knowledge of Spanish literature, creating works of delusional arguments, opulent imagination, and surprising expression.
- Fernando Arrabal, who released most of his work in France due to censorship in Spain, represents the boldest and most original Spanish theater after the civil war.
Theater of the Last Two Decades
General. Since the abolition of censorship, several moments became symbols with significant cultural impact: the adoption of the constitution, the coup attempt, the victory of the PSOE, Spain’s integration into the European Union, the general strike of 1988, the Expo in Seville, the Barcelona Olympics, and the triumph of the Popular Party in the 1996 elections. During these two decades, cultural development experienced a surge, characterized by:
- Increased external dissemination of Spanish writers’ work.
- Increased presence of works and authors in Castilian, due to the presence of autonomous powers.
- Extraordinary creative vitality in all genres.
Playwrights
Playwrights who had already written during the Franco era, such as Antonio Gala and Fernando Arrabal, expanded and consolidated their reputations after 1975, along with Buero Vallejo and Alfonso Sastre. Names from university theater groups, such as Jose Sanchis Sinisterra, became noted for the consistency between theory and theatrical practice.
Theater Directors
The progressive disappearance of independent theater groups led to the emergence of stable companies, formed by theater professionals united by common aesthetic and ideological approaches, working together permanently and assuming all aspects of the dramatic creation process: texts, direction, scenic design, interpretation, and economic management.