Spanish Theater: Realism, Absurdity, and Innovation

Remember José Sanchis Sinisterra, author of realist theater; Lauro Olmo, José Rodríguez, and so on. The 1960s saw the overcoming of realism's vanguard due to European theater: theater of the absurd, theater of cruelty. Fernando Arrabal is characterized by elemental scenic design, personality, and naive language. He uses the form of the ceremony. Arrabal's panic theater is characterized by confusion, terror, humor, randomness, and euphoria; incorporating surrealist elements in language. His themes are religion, sexuality, politics, death, and love. It converges on the positive through surrealism, theater of the absurd, and the theater of cruelty. "The Graveyard of Cars" is based on a dying society with hidden characters, doomed to an uncomfortable coexistence, who react violently. "The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria" features historical time, suffers a plane crash, the incarnation of mythical time. The island is being transformed into a world of war and death.

Francisco Nieva had difficulty being accepted into the Spanish scene. He connects with the theater of the absurd, where there is always a possibility that leads to salvation. A theater most cathartic and liberating for the human essence, using eroticism. A dark Spain and religion are subjects of criticism. He writes short, very angry theater scenes: "Hair of Storm," "Fara-Damned Theater and His Daughters are Crowned," "Chronically Theater," and "Lara's Shadow and Illusion."

Symbolists

Avant-garde writers, pessimism, and symbols of oppressive power. The theme: sexuality, aggressive language, physical and verbal violence (Ruidabal Jose Miguel Romero).

Among the heirs of bourgeois comedy of the 60s, Alfonso Paso, Jaime Armiñan, Jaime Salom, and Jose Millan stand out. This new burger comedy, with immobile theater, repeats past schemas, with characters far removed from social circumstances.

In the dependent theater, a supposed rejection by a conservative show of peculiar aesthetic and self-financing: Els Joglars, Els Comediants. These theater groups are characterized by the text losing importance; they find the whole spectacle, potency, body expression, and the public participates in the works.

1980s-90s Dramas

Contemporary subjects have an aesthetic and formal innovation. José Sanchis Sinisterra: "Ay, Carmela!" A drama about the theater of the Spanish Civil War. José Luis de Santos: "Get Off the Moor," a parody of the social structure through comic and tragic situations.