Spanish Theater Trends Before 1936: Key Playwrights & Movements

Pre-Theater 1936: Trends and Groups

The different groups and trends in the theater prior to 1936 are:

1. Bourgeois Comedy

Jacinto Benavente was its most representative author. He offered a theater with a greater interest in conversational dialogue and a more realistic tone.

The characters were bourgeois, and the topics covered were typical conflicts such as unrequited love and infidelity.

Among his works are "La Gobernadora" (The Housekeeper) and "Lo Inquilino" (The Unloved), a kind of theater that develops a violent world of uncontrolled passions for urban education.

2. Poetic Theater

It arises from modernism. It is a scene of pure evasion that retrieves historical and legendary themes.

Eduardo Marquina highlights "Las Hijas del Cid" (The Daughters of the Cid), and the Machado brothers, "Lola se va a los puertos" (Lola is Going to Ports).

3. Comedy Theater

Its basic purpose is the entertainment of the public.

It includes trends and events as diverse as the zarzuela and sketches.

Carlos Arniches is highlighted, presenting their sketches in a gallery of colorful characters from Madrid with their daily problems and castiza way of speaking. Also highlighted are their grotesque tragedies in denouncing social evils in Spain.

Attempts at Theater Renovation

• On the Generation of '98: Unamuno cultivated the theater as a means of expressing existential concerns; it is an intellectual and philosophical drama. Highlights: "El Otro" (The Other).
• Valle-Inclán: For some, Valle-Inclán is the largest national playwright. His work brought about a revolution in Spanish theatrical history. His plays can be grouped into three levels:
  • The Myth: The action takes place in a mythical Galicia. Comedias bárbaras (Barbaric Comedies).
  • The Farce: Works in a more ridiculous area. La Marquesa Rosalinda (The Marchioness Rosalinda).
  • The Scarecrow: It is an attempt to present reality in an exaggerated Spanish and burlesque way.

The grotesque theater criticizes a false reality and values that make no sense.

"Luces de Bohemia" (Bohemian Lights) tells the journey of Max Estrella and his fellow Latino Hispalis through Madrid nightlife.

Federico García Lorca

His play can be structured in three blocks:

• First Play: In 1920, the premiere of "El Maleficio de la Mariposa" (The Curse of the Butterfly) about loving dissatisfaction. He later published "Mariana Pineda" and "La zapatera prodigiosa" (The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife), among others. The themes are conflict between freedom and authority.
• Avant-Garde Theater: Surreal comedy created under the influence. In "El Público" (The Public), Lorca defends love as an instinct beyond control and homosexuality.
• The Stage of Fullness: Lorca wrote during the 30s plays that achieved commercial success: "Bodas de Sangre" (Blood Wedding), "Yerma," and "La Casa de Bernarda Alba" (The House of Bernarda Alba), all with women as protagonists and their social marginalization as the theme.