Golden Age Drama in Contemporary Spain

The Comedia on Page, Stage and Screen

Duncan Wheeler

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781783165018
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Drama
• Index: Literature

This is the first monograph on the performance and reception of sixteenth- and seventeenth- century national drama in contemporary Spain, which attempts to remedy the traditional absence of performance-based approaches in Golden Age studies. The book contextualises the socio-historical background to the modern-day performance of the country's three major Spanish baroque playwrights (Calderón de la Barca, Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina), whilst also providing detailed aesthetic analyses of individual stage and screen adaptations.

Chapter One

The performance history of Golden Age drama in Spain (1939–2009)

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Following Franco’s victory in 1939, the legacy of the Civil War was felt in all aspects of Spanish life; the performance of Golden Age drama was no exception. Commentators have, traditionally, tended to direct more attention towards theatre produced by the Republicans than the Nationalists during the conflict. This is mainly because the former were more inventive in their theatrical endeavours and also because Madrid and Barcelona, the principal loci of theatrical activity, remained Republican strongholds until near the end of the war (Oliva, 2002a, p. 118). However, Golden Age works were performed by both sides. On the Republican front, Cervantes proved particularly popular; Alberti staged Numancia, and there were various productions of the entremeses [short plays] adapted to fit the contemporary context. There were also representations of Lope’s Fuente Ovejuna.1

While Republican forces looked to adapt Golden Age works to fit the needs of the present, Nationalist forces saw the need for the present to be rooted in the past. Franco had already taken to comparing himself to the great Castilian rulers of the past, and as early as February 1938 he had adopted the imperial crown and shield of Charles V as the arms of state (Preston, 1995, p. 324). It was felt that Spain had lost its way and had, in many respects, ceased to be ‘Spanish’ since the seventeenth century.2 Golden Age authors were seen to represent an eternal Spain that the Nationalist side would reawaken. It is from this conception that José María Salaverria’s daydream emerges:

Yo imagino a Garcilaso de la Vega ciñéndose apresuradamente la espada para correr a ponerse a las órdenes de Franco, como hiciera otrora con la persona del emperador Carlos V... En cuanto a Cervantes, sin duda posible se vendría con nosotros, y aunque con la mano estropeada, pediría un puesto entre nuestros soldados, porque él se enorgullecía, más que de nada, de haber sido un soldado leal... Tampoco vacilaría mucho Lope de Vega, aquel que se embarcó de voluntario en la Gran Armada; ni menos aún Calderón de la Barca, que fue soldado en Flandes y conservó siempre en su larga vida una nostálgica veneración por la gente militar. (1938)

[I can imagine Garcilaso de la Vega hurriedly sheathing his sword so that he could run and place himself under Franco’s orders, as he once did for the Emperor Charles V... As for Cervantes, there can be no doubt that he would be with us. Even with his limp hand, he would ask for a post among our soldiers because he was proud, above all else, of having been a brave soldier... Neither would Lope de Vega, who once volunteered for the Great Armada, take much convincing; even quicker off the mark would be Calderón de la Barca who was a soldier in Flanders and retained throughout his life a nostalgic veneration for those in the military.]

According to this conception, Republican productions of Golden Age works were perversions of their author’s intentions. However, it was only at the beginning of 1938 when Dionisio Ridruejo, nicknamed ‘the Spanish Goebbels’, took charge of press and propaganda for the Nationalist side, that dramatic art began to perform an important function in consolidating ideology (Payne, 1961, p. 181). He encouraged the staging of autos sacramentales [Corpus Christi plays] and, on 1 June, the Ministry of Interior announced a special literary prize for the best production (Schwartz, 1969, p. 201). The eventual winner, El casamiento engañoso by Falangist Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, explicitly linked the past and present as an argumentador [disputant] emerges to deliver a statement of intent:

Cuando Calderón ofrecía a la Hostia festejada el homenaje de su pompa poética, el tejido conceptual de sus figuraciones era el mismo que empujara a nuestros soldados a pelear en Breda y a nuestros diplomáticos a suscribir melancólicamente los protocolos del tratado de Westfalia. El poeta que escribió este Auto quiere igualmente, festejar la divina presencia ofreciendo, con menos poesía y ornato, pero con idéntico fervor, representado también en alegorías, el pensamiento que ha conducido hasta hace muy escasos días a nuestros soldados a mucho más dura pelea. (1941, pp. 8–9)

[When Calderón paid homage to the Host with his poetic grandeur, the conceptual basis of his figurations was the same as that which spurred on our soldiers in Breda, and our diplomats with melancholy resignation to abide by the protocols of the Westfalia Treaty. The poet who wrote this Corpus Christi Play also wants to celebrate the divine presence with an offering of equal conviction, albeit with lesser poetic art and decoration, depicting through allegory those very same beliefs that, until very recently, led our soldiers to fight a much tougher battle.]

Considering the key role Catholicism was to perform in forging national identity, the attractions of the autos sacramentales were clear; they also lent themselves to the kind of spectacular outdoor productions that were already very popular in Mussolini’s Italy.3 Hence, for example, Luis Escobar directed an elaborate version of Valdivielso’s El hospital de los locos in the square outside Segovia Cathedral on 28 July 1938 that was also aired on the very recently created Spanish national radio (Munsó Cabús, 1988, p. 34).4 In addition to the main actors, the production featured one hundred and fifty extras draped in cloaks and hoods, and had lavish sets designed by José Caballero, an ex-member of La Barraca. Though the Republicans were inspired by the kind of social engagement advocated by García Lorca’s troupe, Nationalist productions benefited from the technical expertise of many of its veterans.

A new Golden Age? Forging a Francoist national identity (1939–50)

Up until the day that Nationalist forces occupied Madrid, a version of El alcalde de Zalamea staged by Manuel González’s company was playing at the Teatro Español (García-Alegre Sánchez, 1981, p. 2), but it would not be long before those on the victorious side offered their version of the classics to the capital. The cultural policy of the early Franco regime would seek inspiration in Spain’s glorious past that, it was hoped, would arm the nation against dangerous foreign influences and provide a moral and political model for the present. There was an implicit belief, not evident in such force since the Golden Age, that the health of language and empire were inextricably linked (Brown, 1942, p. 65).

Though all genres would be represented over the coming years, it is not surprising that initially the focus was on the kind of works that had been championed through the Civil War. When Franco entered Madrid on 19 May 1939, Escobar, as head of the Falange’s National Theatre, was put in charge of staging the first theatrical celebrations of the Nationalist victory. Later in the year, Escobar and his company were asked to stage a spectacular performance to celebrate the Día de la Victoria [Victory Day] (18 July). Beginning on 23 July, he offered a series of open-air performances of Calderón’s La cena del rey Baltasar in the Retiro Park. According to Ya, this ‘acontecimiento teatral, desborda en realidad el limitado marco del espectáculo público para adquirir categoría de servicio nacional’ [theatrical event transcends the restricted domain of a public spectacle so as to acquire the status of national service] (1939), and an advertisement printed in Arriba on 27 July announced an extra two performances due to the high demand for tickets. Despite the occasional patriotic work, generally staged by the Falange, and performances of works by the martyred Nationalist playwright Pedro Muñoz Seca (executed by Republican forces), the plays on offer in Madrid in 1939 did not, however, radically differ from those that had been performed prior to Franco’s victory (García Ruiz, 1997a, p. 530).

Theatre was never manipulated by the regime to the same extent as some other media, most noticeably cinema, in the forging of a new national identity (Higginbotham, 1988, p. 8). The ideological role of the stage was, in the post-Civil War years, performed largely by Golden Age drama and the regime would exert its authority and influence on the theatrical world primarily through its exclusion of undesirable elements. On 15 July 1939, the official state censor was established. The classics did not have to be submitted for authorization although any changes to the play text as well as the specific staging (e.g. costumes and sets) did require the censor’s approval.5 Implicit in this procedure was the belief that the classics in themselves were ideologically sound but that they could nevertheless be corrupted by deviant productions.6

Although in 1939 Escobar staged autos sacramentales at the Teatro María Guerrero, and Felipe Lluch7 staged comedias and entremeses at the Español, both buildings remained in private hands. It was in 1940 that the state acquired these venues and they became the National Theatres.8 From the outset, seventeenth-century drama was an important part of both theatres’ programmes and they remained loyal to the classics for many years. Between 1939 and 1950, 15.1 per cent (23 out of 152 productions) and 10.6 per cent (13 out of 122 productions) of output, at the Español and María Guerrero respectively, was based on Golden Age plays (Serrano, 2003, p. 1339).9 These figures, in isolation, diminish the role these plays performed in the theatrical, cultural and ideological panorama of the time as the classics were often reserved for the most high-profile performances and always generated heavy press coverage. This, along with the fact that productions of seventeenth-century plays were relatively immune to the censor, helped foster the impression that Golden Age drama was the regime’s niño mimado [golden boy].

It is perhaps too easy both to overstate the ideological role of the National Theatres and to use this as grounds for understating their artistic achievements. As Francisco Linares notes, they were under the auspices of National Education rather than the Propaganda Ministry (1996, p. 212), and this is reflected in their output. Both theatres undoubtedly exalted nationalist values but they also provided one of the few alternatives to the commercial theatre and allowed a level of professionalism that was conspicuously absent from the Spanish stage at the time. Traditionally, the leading actor had taken the role of director in theatrical productions and the National Theatres were among the first to have a genuine director figure who coordinated all aspects of the production.10 They collaborated with an illustrious group of set designers and costume designers (e.g. Sigfrido Burmann, Emilio Burgos, Víctor Cortezo, José Caballero and Vicente Viudes), many of whom had worked abroad and/or in the past with Alberti, Rivas Cherif and/or García Lorca.11

The extra financial resources that the theatres had at their disposal, combined with more time for rehearsals than was habitual in most private companies, allowed the Español and María Guerrero to maintain a standard of production that was unparalleled in the admittedly bleak theatrical landscape of the post-Civil War period. Most obviously, they were able to dispense with the apuntador [prompter], a ubiquitous presence on the Spanish stage at the time.12 Even in this period of economic hardship, huge amounts of money were invested in these state theatres, which were also exempt from taxation.13

Performances outside Madrid and/or by private and independent companies were rare but not unknown. Ricardo Calvo and Enrique Borrás, two renowned actors with their own companies, were famed for their grandiloquent renditions of Calderón’s verse. The Compañía Ricardo Calvo staged, for example, a version of La vida es sueño at the Coliseum in Madrid from 1–3 and 6–8 March 1940 (García-Alegre Sánchez, 1981, p. 6). Enrique Rambal was also famed for his emotionally wrought productions which toured extensively. From 1942 onwards, the Español Company travelled to Barcelona where it often staged classics as part of its repertoire; La dama duende was included in its first season there (Gallén, 1985, p. 45). Also in the Catalan capital, the Teatro de Arte de Marta Grau y Arturo Carbonell performed an eclectic range of Spanish classics including Lope’s La discreta enamorada and Calderón’s El gran teatro del mundo throughout the 1940s, although the plays were normally staged for one night only.14

Beyond the National Theatres, the other principal outlet for Golden Age drama in the period was the TEU. This movement, which would come to encompass companies from across the country, began in Madrid when Modesto Higueras was asked by the SEU to create a National TEU.15 The company debuted at the Español with Tirso’s La mujer por fuerza; the play was performed alongside an act from a Thornton Wilder play (Higueras, 1965, p. 67). In its choice of dramatic works, the TEUs were even more geared towards the performance of the classics than the National Theatres.

Higueras had worked alongside Lorca, and the TEUs were clearly inspired by La Barraca and Misiones Pedagógicas although they lacked the social conscience of these groups. In Antonio Zapatero Vicente’s memorable if reductive phrase, ‘el TEU es La Barraca pasada por la doctrina del Imperio’ [the TEU is La Barraca filtered through the doctrine of empire] (1999, p. 201). According to Eduardo Pérez...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Editors' Foreword
• List of Illustrations
• Translations of Play Titles
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The performance history of Golden Age drama in Spain (1939–2009)
• Chapter 2: An (early) modern classic: Fuente Ovejuna in contemporary Spain
• Chapter 3: Resurrecting lost traditions? Calderón’s wife-murder plays and the CNTC
• Chapter 4: Cinema and Golden Age drama: the comedia goes to the movies
• Chapter 5: Locating Spanish classical drama in (inter)national contexts: Almagro, the CNTC and the RSC
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Works Cited