20th Century Spanish Theater: Valle-Inclán's Esperpento and Lorca's Rural Tragedy

The Renewal of 20th Century Spanish Theater

In the early decades of the twentieth century, several attempts were made to renew the theatrical landscape. Faced with the need to engage the public, dramatists had two options:

Dramatists' Choices: Commercial vs. Innovative Theater

• Commercial Theater: Theater designed to please the public—commercial, bourgeois, and without criticism. This was sometimes called the "Triumphant Theater."
• Innovative Theater: Theater that was surprising, provocative, critical, and anti-bourgeois. This was the truly innovative path.

The Triumphant Theater (Commercial Realism)

The Triumphant Theater followed three main trends, often adhering to the realism of the nineteenth century and governed by the requirements of the public:

• Nineteenth-Century Realism: Focused on established interests. Notable author: Jacinto Benavente.
• Poetic Verse Drama: Focused on historical issues. Notable author: Machado.
• Picturesque Comic Drama: Notable authors: Carlos Álvarez Quintero and Arniches.

The Innovative Theater and Its Leading Figures

Authors such as Unamuno and Azorín succeeded in the innovative theater, but Valle-Inclán and Lorca achieved truly undeniable quality.

Ramón del Valle-Inclán: Modernism and the Esperpento

Valle-Inclán was a poet, bohemian, eccentric, and maverick who evolved from elegant modernism to a fierce critical literature based on the distortion of reality. His early theater is inscribed in the modernist style, moving later to the mythical cycle of plays like Comedias Bárbaras (a trilogy governed by instincts and passions).

This entire theatrical production led to the creation of a new literary genre: the Esperpento. The Esperpento consistently features deformed characters and values, serving as a complaint against contemporary Spain.

His masterpiece, Luces de Bohemia (1920), contains the definition of the grotesque genre. Key features of the Esperpento include:

• Contrasts between the tragic and the comic.
• Richness of language.

The Esperpento genre continued with the trilogy Mardi Gras. Valle-Inclán remains one of the great figures of Spanish literature.

Federico García Lorca: Conflict, Nature, and Society

Lorca's theater is one of the summits of Spanish and universal drama. His overwhelming personality often concealed a deep malaise. The dominant theme in his plays is always the same: the clash between the individual and society—a conflict between norm and nature.

The roots of his plays draw from various sources:

• Classical Spanish drama (e.g., Lope de Vega).
• Popular forms.
• Greek tragedy.
• Shakespeare.
• Experimental and avant-garde theater.

Lorca's work is generally divided into three stages:

1. First Efforts (1920s): Highlights include works like The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife and the avant-garde experience of Mariana Pineda.
2. Crisis and Aesthetic Foundations: Arising from a life crisis, this stage established new aesthetic foundations for creation, exemplified by The Public.
3. Period of Fullness (Plenitude): Declared his longing for communication and social guidance. This stage is highlighted by the Rural Trilogy: Blood Wedding, Yerma, and The House of Bernarda Alba. These plays share common features: the sexual nature of women as protagonists, the Andalusian rural environment, and a tragic ending.