Spanish Theater Pre-1936: From Benavente to Lorca
1. The Theater Triumphs
1.1 The Bourgeois Comedy
With Jacinto Benavente as the primary representative, the bourgeois comedy flourished. Benavente had a bold start with “The Alien Nest,” a play about the oppressive situation of married women in bourgeois society. While initially controversial, he later gained popularity with works like “Saturday Night” and “Autumn Roses.” His works generally align with the drawing-room comedy style, with the exception of the farce “The Vested Interests,” which draws inspiration from the Commedia dell’Arte. He also explored rural drama, with his most successful work being “Unloved.” Benavente was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1922. His scenic qualities lie in his ability to stage wit and the fluency of his dialogues.
1.2 Verse Drama with Contributions of Modernism
The remnants of the post-romantic verse drama from the previous century continued, incorporating elements of Art Nouveau. This style was associated with a traditional ideology that extolled the ideals of nobility and celebrated historical events. Notable authors include:
- Francisco Villaespesa, with dramas like “The Citadel of Pearls,” “Doña María de Padilla,” and “The Lioness of Castile.”
- Eduardo Marquina, known for historical dramas such as “The Daughters of the Cid,” “In Flanders The Sun Has Set,” and “Teresa of Jesus.”
- The Machado brothers, who drew inspiration from historical figures in plays like “Juan de Manara” and explored more modern themes in “The Lola is Going to Ports.”
1.3 The Comic Theater: Predominance of Manners
Two genres primarily achieved success: the comedy of manners and the farce. Additionally, the género chico, featuring short, light-hearted plays like “La Verbena de la Paloma” or “Rebellious,” gained popularity. The Alvarez Quintero brothers brought to the stage a topical Andalusia, focusing on sentimental works like “El Patio,” “The Gay Genius,” and “Cain.”
Carlos Arniches initially presented sketches of life in Madrid, with titles like “The Saint of the Isidra,” “The Girl’s Cat,” and “Don Quintín, the Amargao.” He also explored grotesque tragedy, merging the laughable and the touching, most notably in “Mademoiselle de Trévelez.”
At a lower level of quality but with greater commercial success was the slapstick comedy genre, created by Pedro Muñoz Seca, author of “Don Mendo’s Revenge.”
1.4 Innovative Theater: Valle-Inclán and Lorca
This type of theater generally faced challenges in achieving mainstream success, with the notable exceptions of Valle-Inclán and Lorca. Unamuno wrote dramas of ideas, such as “Phaedra” and “Other,” which found some success. Azorín’s theater followed the lines of the unreal and the symbolic.
Jacinto Grau represents a unique case with his distinct, dense, and elaborate theater. While it failed to gain traction in Spain, it garnered significant interest in Paris, London, and Berlin, particularly with works like “The Count Alarcos,” “Don Juan de Cariyana,” “The Trickster Is Not Mocked,” and his masterpiece “The Lord of Pygmalion.”
Ramón Gómez de la Serna wrote works that largely remained unperformed, such as “Utopia” and “Labyrinth.”
1.4.1 Generation of ’27 in Theater
Three factors stand out in the theatrical grammar of this generation:
- The refinement of poetic drama
- The incorporation of avant-garde forms
- The aim of bringing theater to the people (Lorca)
1.4.1.1 Pedro Salinas
Salinas’ works include the longer plays “Judith and the Tyrant” and “Dictator.” Among his twelve short plays, “The Head of the Medusa” is particularly renowned.
1.4.1.2 Rafael Alberti
Before the war, Alberti premiered two contrasting works: the surrealist “The Man Deserted” and the politically engaged “Fermín Galán.” After the war, he continued to cultivate political theater, albeit with less freedom, as seen in “Night of War in the Prado Museum.” In exile, he wrote “The Eyesore” and “Graceful,” which stand out for their poetic rather than dramatic qualities.
1.4.1.3 Miguel Hernández
Hernández wrote a mystery play, “Who Has Seen and Who Sees You,” and a social drama, “The Farmer of More Air.”
1.4.1.4 Alejandro Casona
Casona was a pure playwright. He gained recognition with the Lope de Vega Prize for his play “La Sirena Varada.” He continued his success with “Again the Devil 2,” a blend of humor and lyricism, followed by “The Boat Without a Fisherman,” “Trees Die Standing,” and notably “The Lady of the Dawn.” Casona excels in his constructive ability and balanced combination of reality and fantasy.
1.4.1.5 Max Aub
Aub wrote comedies that were deemed unsuitable for mainstream Spanish theaters. His central theme revolves around humanity’s inability to understand. His extensive body of work includes the long play “Narcissus” and shorter pieces like “A Bottle,” “Exiles,” and “Dying to Close Their Eyes.”
2. Valle-Inclán
2.1 Life and Career
Valle-Inclán’s career initially began in law but shifted towards literature after a trip to Mexico. He led a bohemian life in Madrid, married actress Josefina Blanco, and worked as a war correspondent on the French front. He was appointed to a chair of aesthetics at the School of Fine Arts in Madrid but soon left due to boredom. His devotion to literature was absolute, enduring hardship and poverty alongside his family. During the Republic, he was appointed director of the Spanish Academy in Rome, but shortly after, suffering from cancer, he returned to Santiago de Compostela, where he died in 1936.
2.2 Literary Style and Ideology
Valle-Inclán declared himself anti-bourgeois, criticizing bourgeois civilization as mechanized and ugly. He initially aligned himself with Carlism but later shifted to a revolutionary stance. He vehemently clashed with the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, and upon the proclamation of the Republic, he advocated for a Leninist Communist Party dictatorship in Spain. However, he also expressed admiration for Mussolini’s productivity.
Valle-Inclán’s literary output is vast and diverse, encompassing novels, short stories, plays, and poetry. He transitioned from an elegant and nostalgic modernism to a style characterized by the grotesque distortion of reality.
2.3 Literary Periods
2.3.1 From the Beginning to the Sonatas
After publishing some short stories, his first book, “Feminine,” featured six captivating stories influenced by Italian literature. This was followed by works with French influences and other collections of stories, such as “Epithalamium,” “Shady Garden,” “Court of Love,” and “Flower of Holiness.” The pinnacle of this period is the “Sonatas,” a series of four novels: “Autumn Sonata,” “Summer Sonata,” “Spring Sonata,” and “Winter Sonata.” These novels are presented as the supposed memoirs of the Marquis de Bradomín.
2.3.2 Between the Sonatas and the Esperpentos
Valle-Inclán began the cycle of barbarian plays with “Eagle Blazon,” “Romance de Lobos,” and “Face of Silver.” These plays are set in the rural environment of Galicia, featuring strange, violent, or eccentric characters. This was followed by a trilogy of novels about the Carlist War: “The Crusaders of the Cause,” “The Glow of the Fire,” and “Gyrs Old,” which highlight romantic heroism. He continued with farces and dramas like “La Marquesa Rosalinda” and also explored poetry with the modernist “Aromas of Legend” and “Kif Pipe,” which features suburban and coarse themes.
2.3.3 The Time of the Esperpentos
In 1920, he published four plays: “Farce of the Italian Love of the King,” “Farce and Rodeo Licensed by the Queen,” “Divinas Palabras,” and “Luces de Bohemia.” The most dramatic of these is “Divinas Palabras.” It is in “Luces de Bohemia” that Valle-Inclán first uses the term esperpento. With this word, meaning bizarre, nonsensical, or absurd, the author refers to those works in which the tragic and the burlesque intertwine in an aesthetic that aims to transcend pain through laughter.
Valle-Inclán wrote three more esperpentos in the following years: “The Horns of Don Friolera,” “Galas Deceased,” and “The Captain’s Daughter,” later collected under the title “Martes de Carnaval.” These plays feature agitated or marginalized figures with a grotesque, puppet-like language that is neither backward nor obscene. This reveals an acerbic vision of reality.
The novels of this later period also share characteristics with the esperpentos. Works like “Tirano Banderas,” about a fictional American dictator, are considered among the most important Spanish novels of the twentieth century and have had a significant influence on Latin American literature.
Finally, he wrote “The Iberian Circle,” composed of three novels: “The Court of Miracles,” “Let My Master,” and “Baza of Swords.” This series was intended as a collective novel. In these novels, as in the esperpentos, the style is sour, fragmented, and imbued with a strong critical force.
2.4 Significance in Theater History
Valle-Inclán’s significance in the history of theater cannot be overstated. For a long time, the esperpentos were considered unstageable, more akin to novels in dialogue form. However, recent years have seen a reevaluation of this view, as new approaches to stage design have successfully brought some of his works to life. Valle-Inclán’s theatrical vision was far ahead of the stage conventions of his time.
3. Lorca: The Theater
3.1 Themes and Characters
Lorca’s plays delve into the depths of human experience, exploring the conflict between reality and desire. He stages tragic fates, passions condemned to loneliness or death, and love marked by infertility. The role of women is particularly significant in his works.
Lorca’s characters navigate two fronts: the metaphysical, where the enemies are time and death, and the social, where they grapple with societal prejudices. Lorca was particularly concerned with reviving classical myths.
3.2 Theatrical Influences and Style
Lorca cultivated theater throughout his life, but especially in his last six years. He directed “La Barraca,” a university theater group supported by the government that toured rural Spain, performing classical plays.
Lorca’s theatrical ideas reveal his disdain for verse drama and the historical genre, and his preference for vaudeville and other forms of fringe theater, such as puppetry. His theater possesses a human dimension, an aesthetic dimension, and a poetic engagement with life and reality.
His early works show modernist roots, drawing inspiration from the rural drama of the past and Spanish classics, from Lope de Rueda to Lope de Vega and Calderón. He was also passionate about puppetry, Greek tragedies, and Shakespearean dramas. This eclectic range of influences led to the development of farce, puppet theater, symbolist drama, tragedy, and even surrealist drama.
Lorca utilized both verse and prose. His first two plays are written entirely in verse, while his last work, “The House of Bernarda Alba,” is written almost entirely in prose. His language blends popular appeal with poetic depth, characterized by the use of symbols, metaphors, and comparisons.
3.3 Evolution of Lorca’s Theater
3.3.1 Experiences of the 1920s Avant-Garde
Lorca’s theatrical journey began with “The Curse of the Butterfly,” a symbolist play. He then composed several short pieces inspired by puppetry, including “The BlackJack Puppets.” His first major success was “Mariana Pineda,” about the heroine who was executed in Granada for embroidering a liberal flag. This was followed by “The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife,” in which a beautiful young woman marries an old shoemaker. Next came “The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden,” and then another puppet farce, “The Don Cristóbal Retablillo.”
3.3.2 Avant-Garde Experiences of the Early 1930s
Lorca experienced a personal and creative crisis following the success of his “Gypsy Ballads.” This crisis was partly related to his homosexuality and led him to question the foundations of his artistic creation and seek a new language. The result was a series of works he called “impossible comedies” or “mysteries.” The first of these was “The Public.” It is a kind of morality play without God, whose characters embody the poet’s obsessions and secret conflicts. Another example is “Thus Five Years Pass.”
3.3.3 Fullness of Recent Years
In this period, Lorca aimed to unite aesthetic rigor with popular appeal. These were the years of “La Barraca.” This stage includes two tragedies, two dramas, and an unfinished comedy. In almost all of them, women occupy a central position, as Lorca believed they, along with children, gypsies, and black people, were marginalized creatures.
The works of this period are: “Blood Wedding,” “Yerma,” “Doña Rosita the Spinster and the Language of Flowers,” and “The House of Bernarda Alba.” There is also a draft of the first act of an untitled comedy.