20th-Century Spanish Theater
1. The Spanish Theater Before 1936
Introduction
In the early 20th century, Spanish theater offered little to European culture, resisting experimental trends. While authors like Unamuno, Valle-Inclán, and Azorín were ahead of their time, the public rejected their innovations. Commercial theater, represented by Carlos Arniches and Jacinto Benavente, thrived.
Development
Traditional drama included poetic, verse-based historical plays by authors like Eduardo Marquina and Francisco Villaespesa. Carlos Arniches, known for his sketches of Madrid life (El Santo de la Isidra, La Venganza de Don Mendo) and grotesque tragedies like Mademoiselle de Trévelez, epitomized comic theater. Jacinto Benavente, favored by the bourgeoisie, wrote realistic, restrained plays, from Gente Conocida to Titania, characterized by gentle criticism and lack of serious conflict. His most famous work is Los Intereses Creados.
Unamuno used theater as a method of knowledge, creating strange, schematic dramas like Soledad and La Esfinge. Azorín experimented with anti-realist, conflict-free theater, as seen in Old Spain. Valle-Inclán, the greatest figure of 20th-century Spanish theater, viewed theater as a total spectacle, using cinematic techniques. He critiqued contemporary society through artful evasion and biting sarcasm. His early modernist works include El Marqués de Bradomín. After the mythic cycle of La Divina Comedia and Palabras Bárbaras, set in Galicia, he developed the esperpento, a grotesque, distorted view of reality reflecting his times. Luces de Bohemia, depicting the last hours of the blind poet Max Estrella in a chaotic Madrid, exemplifies this style.
Conclusion
With the Second Republic in 1931, strong support for theater emerged through initiatives like the Educational Missions and La Barraca of Federico García Lorca. This fostered the avant-garde theater of Pedro Salinas, Rafael Alberti, Miguel Hernández, Max Aub, and Lorca himself. Lorca’s drama, the most significant of his generation, evolved from poetic plays like Mariana Pineda, through the avant-garde Así que pasen cinco años, to his final social tragedies, marked by a yearning for freedom, justice, and self-realization. His dramatic trilogy of Spanish life—Bodas de Sangre, Yerma, and his masterpiece, La Casa de Bernarda Alba (1936)—exemplifies this.
Life and Works of Valle-Inclán
Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936), born in Villanueva de Arosa, Pontevedra, studied in Pontevedra and Santiago de Compostela. He enrolled in Law at the University of Santiago (1886-1889). In 1896-97, he moved to Madrid, immersing himself in bohemian life. He lost his left arm in an altercation. Between 1902 and 1905, he wrote the Sonatas, four short novels (Sonata de Primavera, Sonata de Estío, Sonata de Otoño, and Sonata de Invierno) chronicling the adventures of the Marquis de Bradomín, establishing him as a leading modernist prose writer. After marrying actress Josefina Blanco, he continued with plays like Águila de Blasón, Romance de Lobos, and Cara de Plata. In 1908, he began publishing La Guerra Carlista, contrasting war’s heroism and brutality. Despite financial difficulties, he dedicated himself to writing. In 1933, he became director of the Spanish Academy in Rome. He died of cancer in Santiago in 1936. Luces de Bohemia (1920) introduced the esperpento.
Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)
Federico García Lorca, the most renowned 20th-century Spanish writer, achieved universal acclaim. His assassination during the Spanish Civil War made him a symbol of the Franco regime’s repression. Born in Fuente Vaqueros (Granada), he studied high school and music in his hometown. From 1919 to 1928, he resided at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, befriending artists like Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, and Rafael Alberti. He traveled to New York and Cuba (1929-1930). Upon returning to Spain, his plays brought him fame. He directed the university theater La Barraca, lectured, and wrote songs, achieving success in Argentina and Uruguay (1933-1934).
Lorca’s drama, alongside Valle-Inclán’s, is considered the most important in 20th-century Castilian. His wide-ranging work features fantastical characters, lyrical elements, and a deep sense of nature and life. His early comedies (1921-1928) include Tragicomedia de Don Cristóbal y la señá Rosita, Retablillo de Don Cristóbal, and El Retablo de Maese Pedro, notably El Zapatero Prodigioso, set in Andalusia, contrasting reality and imagination. Amor de Don Perlimplín con Belisa en su Jardín is another farce. His “unrepresentable dramas” (1930-1931), El Público and Así que pasen cinco años, explore drama, revolution, and homosexuality through psychoanalysis. Bodas de Sangre (1933) and Yerma (1934), rural tragedies, blend mythology, poetry, and reality. Doña Rosita la Soltera (1935) and La Casa de Bernarda Alba (1936) address the plight of Spanish women. His early modernist plays include El Maleficio de la Mariposa (1920) and Mariana Pineda (1927). Lorca’s creative world, with its dazzling imagery, explores love, pansexualism, infertility, childhood, and death. His anti-fascist stance led to his execution in Granada during the Civil War.