Postwar Catalan Theater: Evolution and Key Playwrights

Item 11: Postwar Theatrical Renewal (1939–1970)

Theater was the genre that faced the most obstacles and reopened the latest. From 1939 to 1946, the dictatorship forbade representations that did not reinforce its ideology. The Principality remained limited to traditional works like Els Pastorets and the Miracles de Sant Vicent in Valencia.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Franco regime began to authorize some works in the Catalan language, which suffered from prior censorship and advertising restrictions. Despite these obstacles, there was some recovery in Barcelona, where the theater of Salvador Espriu, such as Primera història d'Esther, and other contemporary authors were represented.

However, Valencia remained in a situation of diglossia: high culture in Spanish, and popular drama or comedy sketches in Valencian.

The Rise of Independent Theater

During the 1960s, independent theater emerged in university circles, seeking an audience with a higher cultural level. This new drama followed European trends, including:

• Avant-garde theater
• Surrealism
• Theater of the absurd

In the 1970s, groups appeared offering new dramatic techniques such as mime and provocation. Noteworthy theater companies include:

• Els Joglars, directed by Albert Boadella
• Els Comediants, who specialized in street theater
• Dagoll Dagom and La Fura dels Baus, known for aggressive and powerful visual imagery

The most important playwrights of this era are Benet i Jornet, Jordi Teixidor, and Rodolf Sirera.

Item 12: The Plays of Manuel de Pedrolo

The work of Manuel de Pedrolo is among the most extensive and varied in contemporary literature. With over one hundred titles, Pedrolo explored practically all genres and utilized a wide variety of topics and techniques.

Themes and Existentialism

Between 1958 and 1963, he wrote 13 plays focusing on themes of authenticity, the meaning of existence, and freedom. He analyzed these through different angles, matching formal and stylistic techniques associated with the theater of the absurd.

His work displays philosophical concerns regarding death and communication problems. His existential anxiety underlies the human condition. In Cruma, he treated the rebellion of a young couple against conformism; in Situació bis, he reflected on freedom from a genuine social and political perspective.

Arising from the need to present a situation of collective repression, Pedrolo's theater circumvented Francoist censorship by stripping dialogue of any references that would locate the action. His pieces lack specific geography or history, and his characters are symbols embodying attitudes that the author faces in extreme situations from an existentialist approach.

Rather than the label of the "absurd," Pedrolo preferred to classify his work as abstract theater.