Evolution of Spanish Theater: Post-war to Democracy

Miguel Delibes

Style: Simplicity and clarity of expression.

Themes: Rural environments and characters without resources. The elderly and children represent true wisdom, expressing opinions about the world's shortcomings.

Novel Stages:

• Social Realism: The Road
• Experimentalism: Five Hours with Mario
• Historical Novel: The Heretic
• Other titles: Rats, The Holy Innocents

Adaptations: Many works successfully adapted for film and theater, demonstrating thematic appeal.

Post-war Theater (1940s)

Two main trends:

• Ideological drama
• Comedy, originating from pre-war authors

Comedy Styles:

• High comedy: Restrained, elegant, featuring upper classes
• Farce: Spontaneous, reflecting customs of the masses

Key Author: Jacinto Benavente

Theater of the 1950s

Significant changes in both comedy and drama, departing from official theater and trivial positions.

Comedy: Miguel Mihura's Three Hats uses absurd humor to satirize a society full of conventions.

Drama: Rise of social realism:

• Buero Vallejo's Historia de una escalera
• Alfonso Sastre's Squadron to Death

Both address the problems of Spanish society from a position of compromise.

Theater of the 1960s

Two main trends:

• Commercial theater
• Committed and innovative theater, derived from social realism, critical of social problems while seeking new forms of expression

Authors:

• Commercial: Alfonso Paso, Armiñán, Jaime Salom
• Committed/Innovative: Lauro Olmo, Antonio Gala, Fernando Arrabal (exiled to France)

Theater of the 1970s

Post-Censorship: Works of exiled authors like Max Aub and Rafael Alberti become available.

Avant-Garde Aesthetics: Francisco Nieva, José Romero East, and Ruibal.

Variety of Styles: From experimental to realistic theater.

Authors: Buero Vallejo, Antonio Gala, alongside new authors like Fernando Fernán Gómez.

Independent Theater: Proliferation of independent groups and theater festivals.