Spanish Theater: Exile, Censorship, and Innovation (1939-Present)
Spanish Theater in Exile and Post-War (1939)
Spanish Theater in exile and post-war in a context of political cleansing, rationing, and strict censorship.
- Max Aub: San Juan, Jewish emigrants fleeing the Nazis in a ship and fail to be received in any port. Dying to Ignore.
- Machado Brothers: The Man Who Died in the War
- Alejandro Casona: The Lady of the Dawn, The Boat Without a Fisherman, Trees Die Standing.
Forties: Humor
Literature of evasion and related arrangements, as well as rooted poetry.
- Enrique Jardiel Poncela: Eloise is Below the Almond Tree, and Thieves are Good People.
- Miguel Miura: Three Top Hats, published in 1952, although written twenty years earlier. It is coeval with works of Valle Inclán, Unamuno, and Lorca. It is a comedy satirizing the bourgeoisie and the poetic life of debauchery and music hall.
Fifties: Social Theater
With existentialist themes and the intention to oppose the dictatorship, denouncing social injustice, exploitation, etc.
- Buero Vallejo:
- Existential Phase (reflection about the human condition): Story of a Staircase, frustrations that are repeated in four young people.
- Social Theater (complaints about social injustice): A Dreamer for a People; The Concert at Saint Ovide (allegations of exploitation of a group of blind people in Paris) and The Skylight, strong criticism of Francoism.
- Innovation Stage: the effects of immersion (embodiment of dreams). Some works are: The Sleep of Reason, The Foundation, a luxurious place that is a cell for five people sentenced to death, or Random Traps.
- Alfonso Sastre: Squadron Towards Death
- Lauro Olmo: The Shirt
Sixties and Seventies: Commercial and Experimental Theater
- Commercial Theater: Comedies by Mihura, Jaime Salom, etc. triumphed. Among the new ones, Antonio Gala stands out. His works are very poetic, with simple teachings, starting from personal situations to reflect on universal conflicts. Green Fields of Eden, Rings for a Lady, The Little Hotel, Seneca, etc.
- Experimental Theater: New proposals in opposition to realistic aesthetics, but also with social critique. The works in this branch found no facilities for performance, either by censorship or lack of interest from the spectator. Hence the nickname “underground theater.”
- Fernando Arrabal: Imagination, surreal elements, child language, etc. His works were usually premiered in France and would fall within the “panic stage” (enhancing creative freedom and the scandal of the beholder). Works: Picnic, The Tricycle, The Labyrinth, etc.
Also, at the end of Franco’s regime, “independent theater” encompassed groups like “The Goliards,” “Tabano,” and “Els Joglars.”
After the dictatorship and censorship were removed, when it seemed that a new era of creativity was opening, the theater went into crisis. Hence the creation of theatrical institutions dependent on the government, such as the National Dramatic Center or the National Classical Theater Company.
- Francisco Nieva: Winner of numerous awards, he is probably the most important author of this era. He wrote works during the dictatorship but was not represented until this epoch. Linked to the “postista” group, his work will shift to the surreal path. He himself divided his work into three groups:
- Chronic Theater and Printing (realist aesthetic)
- Theater of Farce and Calamity (irrationality and imagination)
- Furious Theater (split with the preset theater)
Some of his works are: Hair of a Storm, Nosferatu, I Love You, Bitch, etc.
Other authors of this period are:
- Sanchis Sinisterra: Ay, Carmela!
- Jose Luis Alonso Santos: Bajarse al Moro
- Fernando Fernan Gomez: Bicycles Are Not for Summer
- Ignacio Amestoy: Close the Door Tightly