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- 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
Dramatis Personae: Golden Age playwrights
While poetry, literature and art all flourished in the Golden
Age, it was drama, staged in the rash of new playhouses,
which really exploded into people’s lives, with eager
audiences drawn from every sector of society. Lope de
Rueda and a small group of imitative contemporaries
had already set Spanish theatre up for success, before
new themes gathered pace in the late 16thcentury. In
particular, Juan de la Cueva broke new ground, ditching
classical traditions and drawing instead on Spanish history
and everyday life for inspiration. Social discord, heroics,
religion and humour were all pitched into the new mix of
drama, shaping the formulaiccomedias nuevasthat Lope
de Vega would develop to huge success. Many authors
spread their talents across the genres, dividing their time
between poetry, literature and drama. Indeed, the literary
man of the hour, Cervantes, also wrote many a play,
although neither of the two that survives is highly rated.
Three other men outshone Cervantes in the theatre; three
playwrights whose talent stretched drama’s Golden Age
over the best part of a century:
Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio
The closest thing to a Spanish Shakespeare, Lope de Vega
(as he’s usually called) still has significant parts of
his repertoire in regular performance today. What made
him so great? He wrote about the stuff of everyday life,
about honour, rank, love and death, and with it generated
areal,hithertounseensenseofdrama.Themostfamous
of his plays,Fuente Ovejuna(c.1612), is among the
most archetypal with its story of love and humble folk
honourably triumphing over the tyranny of petty nobility.
Other plays took biblical themes, while some were set in
Antiquity.Comedias de capa y espada(cloak and dagger
plays) also formed a sizeable chunk of his repertoire;
plays likeLa dama boba(1613), a comic tale of feigned
stupidity and sibling jealousy.
Back yard plots
Municipal theatres,
corrales, began opening
in the 16thcentury. The
first, Corral de la Cruz in
Madrid, opened in 1579
and others soon followed,
quenching the public’s
new thirst for theatre.
Essentially they were
converted courtyards.
Overlooking windows
became box seats, while
below, two sides of the
yard had benched seating.
Most of the famously
boisterous audience stood
on a patio in the middle,
watching the drama
unfold at the end of the
yard.Corralesusually had
a gallery specifically for
poor women, thecazuela
- ‘stew pot’ – as it was
known. Companies of
professional actors and
actresses, usually about
20 strong, toured the
theatres, working their
way through a prodigious
Golden Age repertoire of
new plays. Most
performances took place
mid afternoon – everyone
had to be off stage at
least an hour before
nightfall.
The Church tried to govern
the behaviour of actresses
on stage with various
laws. One such statute
dictated that they could
only appear on stage if
either their father or
husband were present in
the auditorium.
