Postwar Spanish Theater: Trends and Notable Playwrights

Postwar Spanish theater aimed to entertain and escape. Bourgeois comedy, with themes of love and fidelity, critiqued societal customs without bitterness. Notable authors included Jose Maria Peman, Joaquin Calvo Sotelo (The Wall), Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena (Don Jose, Pepe and Pepito), Jose Lopez Rubio, and Victor Ruiz Iriarte (Child's Play).

Teatro del Humor

Characterized by witty language and improbable scenarios, this genre caricatured society. Enrique Jardiel Poncela, with works like Angelina or the Honor of a Brigadier and Eloisa is Beneath an Almond Tree, and Miguel Mihura, a precursor to the theater of the absurd with plays such as Three Hats, Ninette and a Lord of Murcia, were masters of comic language, irony, wordplay, and hyperbole.

Theater in Exile

Developed primarily in Mexico and Argentina, this theater incorporated cutting-edge developments. Rafael Alberti's political theater, notably The Eyesore, addressed intolerance of power. Max Aub's San Juan drama depicted the plight of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism, a critique of nations denying asylum. Alejandro Casona, with works like Lady of the Dawn, was sometimes accused of producing escapist drama.

Existential, Social, and Realist Drama

Antonio Buero Vallejo, whose work reflected injustice, suffering, and the search for freedom, explored existential themes in plays like Historia de una Escalera and Burning in the Darkness, and social issues in A Dreamer for a Town, Las Meninas, and The Skylight. Alfonso Sastre focused on social commitment with works like Squad to Death and Sandra and the Ash. Jose Martin Recuerda penned social critiques such as The Savages in San Gil and The Bridge of Beaterio Arrecogías of Saint Mary of Egypt. Laura Olmo's The Shirt addressed poverty and unemployment. Jose Maria Rodriguez Mendez's works include The Innocent of la Moncloa and Weddings Were Famous Rag and Fandango. Carlos Muniz's notable work is The Inkwell. Antonio Gala combined comedy with existential and symbolic drama in plays like Rings for a Lady and Ulises, Why Do You Run?

Several trends emerged in Spanish theater during the 1960s:

• Heirs of Avant-Garde and Theater of the Absurd: Fernando Arrabal, creator of 'panic theater' (confusion, terror, humor) with works like Automobile Graveyard and The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria. Francisco Nieva, whose works explored societal repression, including Storm Hair and Damn Crowned and Daughters.
• Symbolists: Authors like Jose Luis Rubial and Riaza, whose work emphasized pessimism.
• Revival of Bourgeois Comedy: Authors who continued the tradition of bourgeois comedy, focusing on characters detached from social circumstances, notably Alfonso Paso with The Poor Things.

The rise of independent theater groups, such as Joglars and Comediants els, often from university theater, marked the 1970s. There was also a surge in street theater, emphasizing paraverbal elements over verbal ones.

A new generation of authors emerged, addressing contemporary issues with a realistic and moderately renewed aesthetic. Key figures include Jose Sanchis Sinisterra, known for Ay Carmela!, and Jose Luis Alonso de Santos, whose plays Theaters Get Off the Moor and The Tobacconist in Vallecas were adapted into films, and whose work Fermin Cabal Castles in the Air is also notable.