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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
The major playwright of post-Civil War Spain, Antonio
Buero Vallejo, began providing more substance in the
1950s. His first play,Historia de una escalera(1949)
revealed a talent for reflecting Spain’s grim social
conditions with its story of squalid tenement living.
Later Buero Vallejo plays were more allegorical, the pick
of the bunch beingEl sueño de la razón(1970). Its
rendering of a draconian Fernando VII indicted Franco
brilliantly. Other playwrights followed his lead, aided
by the relaxation of censorship laws in the early 1960s.
Antonio Gala began withLos verdes campos del Edén
(1963), a play about homeless folk that also used
allegory to attack the regime, and continued writing well
into the 21stcentury. Another malcontent, Lauro Olmo,
also addressed Spain’s ills, initially with the brilliant
La camisa(1962), set among migrant workers in an
impoverished shanty town. Buero Vallejo, Gala and
Olmo all followed Spanish theatrical traditions but added
a new edge: in common with thegénero chicoand theesperpentosthey
portrayed the sharp end of the social order, but below the humour lay
a grim symbolic realism. Sometimes it proved too much for the censors:
Olmo’s work was banned from 1968 until after Franco’s death.
The rise of female playwrights
A small group of promising female playwrights – a virtually non-existent
species up to that point – emerged in the later Franco years. Ana Diosdado
was the most significant. She burst on the scene withOlvida los tambores
(1970) and has maintained an important presence in Spanish theatre ever
since, exploring social and, in particular, gender-based issues in the likes
ofLos ochenta son nuestros(1988). Paloma Pedrero has enjoyed huge
success since Franco died, writing short comedies based on her own
experiences of everyday life. Many only have one act and a cast of two,
focussing on some brief but life-changing encounter between a man and
woman. Pedrero is apparently the most staged Spanish playwright of
modern times. María Manuela Reina’s late 20thcentury dramas about sex
and family friction have also done well at the box office.
Working to bring down
the system from without
Many of the promising
playwrights born of the
Generación del 27lived
in exile after the Civil
War. Alejandro Casona
was the most famous,
forced to live in
Argentina where he
accrued an impressive
repertoire of work.
La dama del alba(1944),
a mystical piece drawn
from Asturian folklore,
is usually considered his
best effort.
