Baroque Theater: Innovations, Structure, and Characters

Lope de Vega set aside classical rules for theater and introduced his own innovations. The most prominent of these was breaking the rule of the three unities. These unities dictated that:

• Time: Classical theater works could not be developed within more than a day. Lope wanted to break this rule and have works last several years.
• Place: The work was developed in one place. Baroque theater puts it in different places.
• Action: The work was to have a single action so the audience's attention did not deviate from the main subject. This was generally respected in Baroque theater.

Drama is a tragedy because it is mixed with the comic, reflecting real life where the tragic and comic always mix. Baroque theater is divided into three acts instead of the five acts used in classical theater. The first act raises the action, the second act develops it, and the third act presents the outcome. Each of the acts is divided into scenes, and in the case of Lope, these scenes may be located in distant times and places.

Themes in Baroque Theater

There are many issues in Baroque theater, but the most important is love, specifically the love between a knight and a lady. Another key theme is honor, referring to the good opinion others have of a person and the reputation that person acquired by merit. Comedies of religious affairs and mythological characters were also popular.

Characters in Baroque Theater

In classical drama, the protagonists were classic characters, but Lope de Vega set a pattern of characters with different variations and nuances. The characters in the new comedy are:

• King
• Noble knight
• The leading man in love
• Lady
• Old man (the lady's father, husband, or brother)
• Villain
• Funny man

Corrales de Comedias

In corrales de comedias, the plays of the seventeenth century were exploited by different guilds to get some profits to attend hospitals. The old corrales were made up of the following:

Plays would be mounted on the patios of tenements. The audience stood on balconies and windows. The windows on the top floor were called devane, and the lower chambers were called something else. Below, there were seats in a semicircle, called the front steps and patio. The place in the pot at the bottom level of the first floor was for women. There were also musketeers, standing spectators known for their riots.

The scenery was simple because there was almost no scenery. The functions were in the afternoon and lasted two or three hours. The function began with a celebration. Between the 1st and 2nd acts was a farce, and between the 2nd and 3rd acts, they sometimes sang a jácara. At the end, there could be a dance.