Spanish Theater History: Periods and Play Types

Medieval Theater

This is a fragment (147 polymetric verses, predominantly heptasyllabic and enneasyllabic, which was staged in the festival of the Epiphany). In the second half of the sixteenth century stands Gómez Manrique (1412-1480), author of two short sacred pieces: Representations of Our Lord and Coplas for Easter.

Renaissance Theater

Different trends are distinguished: religious theater, Italianate, classical, nationalist, popular.

Baroque Theater Drama Types

In the Baroque theater, two types of dramas were represented: a serious character and a comic nature.

Longer Works

The vast body of drama of the seventeenth century can be classified into:

Serious Dramatic Works

• Tragedies

  Present pitiful disasters involving the audience emotionally.

• Serious Comedies

  Deal with various topics, usually related to honor. The comic elements are organized in isolated sequences.

• Morality Plays

  Religious works whose theme is the exaltation of the Eucharist. Use allegory and a number of other conventions.

Comic Dramatic Works

• Swashbuckling Comedy

  Featuring knights, love affairs; deal with themes close in time and space to the public, which surprised with its improbability.

• Figurehead Comedies

  Plot comedies featuring swashbuckling where a comic hero is inserted, the central figure of a grotesque comedy.

• Palace Comedy

  These are comedies with action at a spatial distance. The nobles are the protagonists.

• Burlesque Comedy

  Represented at carnival or the day of San Juan at courtly parties.

Shorter Works

Short dramatic pieces proliferated, which were inserted during the performance of longer works.

• Entremeses

  Works of only 1 act.

• Loas

  Were used as an introduction to gain performance and public silence.

• Dances

  Intermediate pieces; the elements included music, singing, and dancing.

• Jácaras

  Sung ballads.

• Masquerades

  Broken and ridiculous dance movements.

• Farsas

  Used as an excuse for mixtures of singing and dancing.

Lope de Vega and His Works

Lope de Vega is credited as the creator of national comedy. He was a writer attributed with over 400 works, of which more than 300 are surely his.

Characteristics of Lope's Works

It is characterized by the mixture of religious and popular elements. Sought his plots in proverbs, folk songs, ballads, the Bible, mythology, stories, and legends.

Fuente Ovejuna

There is a double plot: the town of Fuente Ovejuna, a victim of the tyrant, and the Royal City. The principle here is the confrontation between a man who brutally abused his power and the town of Fuente Ovejuna. Villagers revolt on behalf of the Catholic Monarchs, are forgiven, as individual guilt cannot be proven.