Post-War Spanish Drama: Buero Vallejo and Sastre

Antonio Buero Vallejo's Theater

• Characters: Adopt perspectives shaped by time to confront events, aiming to provoke reflection in the audience.
• Audience Identification: Reality is presented subjectively, as the character experiences it (e.g., if a character goes blind, the lighting might reflect this).
• Detailed Stage Directions: Meticulously describes settings, gestures, movements, and character attitudes.
• Symbolism: Characters often embody symbolic meanings; for instance, blindness can represent human limitation and loneliness, while light signifies truth.

Alfonso Sastre: Squad Towards Death

His work includes Existential Drama (Escuadra hacia la muerte - Squad Towards Death), Theater of Social Complaint (Muerte en el barrio - Death in the Neighborhood, La cornada - The Goring, La mordaza - The Gag), often facing censorship, and Complex Tragedies (La sangre y la ceniza - The Blood and the Ashes).

The plot of Escuadra hacia la muerte focuses on a group of soldiers sent miles into enemy territory. Tensions emerge, leading to killings and separation. One soldier commits suicide, another surrenders, one flees into the forest, and two remain at the scene.

Realistic and Committed Theater

Antonio Buero Vallejo, with his work Historia de una escalera (Story of a Stairway), initiated the dramatic mode of the 1950s. This realistic drama centered on political engagement and social critique.

Vallejo and Sastre shared certain ideas but differed in approach. Sastre supported a theater of social unrest confronting power, believing the playwright must prioritize politics over artistic purpose. Vallejo advocated for a 'possible theater,' where the author respects certain rules and dictates of censorship so that works could be displayed on stage, using the stage to combat injustice.

Characteristics of the Realistic Generation:

• Themes: Aligned with reality, addressing the anguish of opponents, migration, rural intolerance, and rebellion against employers or their work.
• Characters: Often lack deep psychological complexity, representing social sectors or victims of injustice.
• Language: Simple, direct, sometimes violent, and colloquial.