Spanish Theater Renewal: Benavente, Lorca, and Valle-Inclán's Esperpento

Spanish Theater: Legacy and Renewal (Early 20th Century)

The Commercial Theater (Teatro de Comercio)

Jacinto Benavente

His work is characterized by careful restraint and realism. His dramas focus on the high bourgeoisie and rural drama.

Comedic Theater (Teatro Cómico)

This style includes music, singing, and dancing. Key figures include the Quintero brothers, Pedro Muñoz Seca (known for astracán), and Carlos Arniches (known for grotesque tragedy).

Verse Drama (Teatro en Verso)

This style addresses historical or fantastic themes, using Modernista meters. The main cultivator is Eduardo Marquina.

Attempts at Renewal (Teatro de Renovación)

• Jacinto Grau: Recovered the myth of Don Juan, social criticism, and the farsa (farce).
• Miguel de Unamuno: Advocated for a "naked theater" (focused on ideas and dialogue).
• Azorín: Fought his anti-realist theater with naturalist aesthetics.
• Ramón del Valle-Inclán: Started with symbolism and the tragic farce, culminating in the grotesque (*esperpento*).
• Federico García Lorca: Started with modernist theater and evolved into farce and the true creator of poetic tragedies.

Ramón del Valle-Inclán's Theater

Valle-Inclán showed a continued willingness for thematic and formal renewal, evolving toward the absurdity.

First Stage: Poetic Language and Realism

The theater uses poetic language and characters with realistic attitudes. In his early works, he dramatizes the subject of adultery and features of the fin-de-siècle.

Key Works of the First Stage:

• The Marquis of Bradomín: Procedures stressed the use of ridicule and the technique of multiple settings.
• The Wilderness of Souls: Extols the triumph of sentiment, criticizes the bourgeois order and religion, emphasizing hypersensitivity.

Second Stage: Galicia, Lust, and Magic

The works are related by their themes, characters, and significance, often located in Galicia, focusing on lust, cruelty, despotism, sacrilege, and magic.

Key Works of the Second Stage:

• Savage Comedies: His characters embody basic human impulses and act moved by obscure reasons.
• Divine Words: Highly absurd. The final words spoken in Latin by Pedro Agresio stop his wife.

Farces (Farsas)

Showbiz characters use costumes and accents to make people laugh.

Farce Works:

• La Marquesa Rosalinda
• The Head of the Dragon
• The King's Love (Grotesque elements)
• Castiza Queen (Satire)

The Grotesque (El Esperpento)

It is a deformation of reality, resulting in cartoonish works where characters are often treated like puppets.

Esperpento Works:

• Bohemian Lights (Luces de Bohemia): Made in 15 scenes and multiple settings; characters are treated like puppets.
• Tuesday Carnival (Martes de Carnaval): A trilogy including The Horns of Don Friolera, The Trappings of the Deceased, and The Daughter of the Captain.