204- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Theatre since Franco
Nudity and sexual and social content inevitably flooded
theTransiciónstage, inhabiting some fairly forgettable
drama. However, some significant work also flourished.
Many of the playwrights who emerged toward the end
of Franco’s rule continued writing for the stage in the
new democratic era, Buero Vallejo, Gala and Olmo
among them. Fermín Cabal helped point serious theatre
in a new direction, writing about the new social ills of
modern Spain.Caballito del Diablo(1983), for example,
focussed on a group of young cocaine addicts. José
Luis Alonso de Santos has also enjoyed box office
success. HisBajarse al moro(1985) tapped into a
newly dynamic Madrid lifestyle with its drug culture.
José Sanchís Sinisterra, a prolific playwright, went for
something more historical with¡Ay Carmela!(1986), set
early on in the Civil War, and scored a box office hit in
Spain and beyond. Juan García is among the latest crop
of Spanish playwrights; hisCeleste Flora(1992) tells
the grisly tale of a Madrid botanist who kills and plants
a group of students. But for all their effort, the literary
playwrights of Spain will have to resign themselves to
the fact that most theatregoers want something less
highbrow, as evidenced by the success of anglicised
musicals likeWe Will RockYou(2002) in translation.Ruibal’s café theatre
Playwright José Ruibal
was an outspoken critic
of the Franco regime in
the years after the Civil
War. For a period he
worked outside Spain to
avoid censorship. When
he returned, he launched
a company that took
drama out of the theatre
and into the café. He had
a cunning plan. When
anyone official looking
entered the café during a
performance, all the
actors simply sat down
and pretended to be
sipping a latte or
something. His best-
known longer work was
El Hombre y la Mosca,
written in 1968 but only
staged in Spain in 1977.