Spanish Theater Evolution: Post-Civil War to Present

Posted on Aug 5, 2025 in Latin

Spanish Theater After the Civil War

After the Civil War, Spanish theater lost its most innovative writers, as many were either deceased or in exile. This period saw the development of conventional theater, largely based on previous popular melodrama. Its primary aim was to amuse and entertain a conservative audience. Strict censorship prevented the emergence of new works that posed even minimal dissent from established moral and social values.

Postwar Conventional Theater (1940s-1950s)

The postwar theater was generally well-constructed, featuring solid dialogue, well-executed action, and surprising plot twists within a comfortable setting. Characters were typically middle-class individuals without significant economic problems. Recurring themes included love, infidelity, and arguments between parents and children. It was a pleasant theater, offering a mild critique of bourgeois mores. It aimed to reflect moderate melodramas addressing moral or social problems, but always rooted in the tradition of high comedy.

Notable playwrights from this period include:

Joaquín Calvo Sotelo, with ¡Viva lo imposible!
José María Pemán, with La viuda y el naufragio
Luca de Tena, with ¿Dónde vas, Alfonso XII?

Renovated Humor and the Absurd

Within this same period, two authors emerged who created a renovated theater of humor, characterized by unusual situations where the probable and the absurd became protagonists. Most significant was their ingenious, unconventional, and ironic language, full of puns and exaggerated hyperbole. They are considered precursors to what would later be known as the European “Theater of the Absurd.”

Key figures include:

Miguel Mihura, with Tres sombreros de copa
Enrique Jardiel Poncela, with Eloísa está debajo de un almendro

Social and Existential Theater (1950s)

The 1950s saw the emergence of an existentialist and social realism movement that brought together a number of playwrights. However, censorship forced them to disguise ideological and political messages under symbolism that was often difficult to discern. Initially, this theater transmitted human anxieties, and later it recreated Spanish life with its lack of freedom, injustice, discrimination, violence, and ideological conflicts.

Among the most prominent authors are:

Antonio Buero Vallejo:
- En la ardiente oscuridad (existentialist phase)
- El tragaluz (social phase)
- La Fundación (phase of formal renewal)
Alfonso Sastre, with Escuadra hacia la muerte

Experimental and Renovative Theater (1970s)

Gradually, the influence of European techniques led to innovations. Around 1970, a dramatic renovation movement emerged in Spain, seeking a language based on dramatic spectacle, staging, and audiovisual techniques. This theater aimed to express dissent against the established system and to raise protest through performance.

Notable authors include:

Francisco Martínez Ballesteros, with Retablo en tiempo presente
Francisco Nieva, with Corona y el trono
Fernando Arrabal, known for his “panic theater” and “comic theater” (e.g., Robame un billoncito)

Contemporary Spanish Theater (Post-1975)

After a period of experimentalism, Spanish theater, like other literary genres, turned its gaze back to tradition. Since 1975, a neorealist trend has emerged, in which authors lean towards well-structured comedies addressing current issues such as unemployment, drugs, and youth crime. The treatment of these issues fosters a new form of costumbrismo, though this time with an ironic tone.