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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2009
The Spanish theatre in the twentieth century has often been criticized for its allegedly poor and unoriginal qualities, only Lorca and Valle-Inclán being widely accepted as dramatists who sought to revitalize the theatre of their day. The period of the Civil War, however, was a time when a number of writers, such as Max Aub, Miguel Hernández and Rafael Alberti, made important experiments with political theatre which are as yet largely unstudied. It is the aim of this article to redress the balance somewhat, by suggesting that the Civil War was not a disaster for the Spanish theatre but gave rise to radical innovations which have generally been neglected, such as Alberti's 1937 adaptation of Cervantes's tragedy El cerco de Numancia (c. 1580–7).
1. See for example, Alcalde, L. Rodríguez, Teatro español contempordneo (Madrid, 1973)Google Scholar, and Ramón, F. Ruíz, Historia del teatro español: siglo XX, third edition (Madrid, 1977).Google Scholar
2. Sender, Ramón J., ‘El teatro nuevo’, Leviatán, 5, no. 6 (06 1936), 46.Google Scholar
3. Brown, G. G., A Literary History of Spain: the Twentieth Century (London and New York, 1972), pp. 110–11.Google Scholar
4. ‘El teatro en España. Los adores parados’, Octubre, nos. 4 and 5 (October–November 1933), 39. ‘Régimen actual’ refers to the theatrical system which the actors in question opposed. The term is, perhaps, deliberately ambiguous since it can also be understood to refer to the government of the day. In November 1933 this changed from a liberal-left coalition to a centre government relying on the support of the right-wing Catholic party CEDA (Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas) whose leader, Gil Robles, the left believed to be a fascist.
5. For details of administrative changes in the theatres during the war see Marrast, Robert, El teatre durant la Guerra Civil espanyola: assaig d'historia i documents (Barcelona, 1978), p. 27.Google Scholar
6. Marrast, , p. 281.Google Scholar
7. Alberti, Rafael, Numancia (Madrid, 1975), p. 7.Google Scholar Further references are given in the text of this article.
8. Saavedra, Miguel de Cervantes, Obras completas, edited by Prat, Angel Valbuena (Madrid, 1960), pp. 156–60.Google Scholar Further references are given in the text of this article.
9. The creation of a conventional army to replace the Popular Militias was anathema to the anarchists; they condemned what they called a ‘psychosis of unity’ and an ‘obsession with discipline’ and were suspicious of the role played by the Communist party in the new army. For further details see Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, third edition (London, 1977), p. 544.Google Scholar
10. Parker, A. A., The Approach to the Spanish Drama of the Golden Age, Diamante VI (London, 1957).Google Scholar
11. Alberti, Rafael, De un momenta a otro (1938)Google Scholar, in Teatro, 2 vols (Buenos Aires, 1950–1964), II, 83–155.
12. The suffering mother always comes to realize that the sacrifice of her children to the war is the noblest possible act and is thus able to transcend her anguish. See for example, Hernández, Miguel, Pastor de la muerteGoogle Scholar, in Obras completas, second edition (Buenos Aires, 1973), pp. 835–905, and Bleiberg, Germán, Amanecer, in Teatro de agitation politico (Madrid, 1977), pp. 105–32.Google Scholar
13. This music was to be used again in the dramatic spectacle Cantata de los héroesy la fraternidad de los pueblos (Buenos Aires, 1942), written by Alberti to commemorate the departure from Spain of the International Brigades and performed in Madrid on 20 November 1938.
14. For details of the press reaction see Marrast, , p. 67.Google Scholar
15. Angulo, Amando C. Isasi, Diálogos del teatro español de la postguerra (Madrid, 1974), p. 36.Google Scholar
16. Popkin, Louise B., The Theatre of Rafael Alberti (London, 1975), p. 28.Google Scholar
17. I am indebted to Mr J. B. Hall and Dr D. J. George for their assistance in the preparation of this article, and to Nigel Dennis of the University of Ottawa for pointing out a further example of the interest shown in Cervantes's El cerco de Numancia during the Civil War. See Dennis, N., ‘Apostillas sobre ‘El triunfo de las germanías’ de Manuel Altolaguirre y Jose Bergamín’ Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, 3 (1978), 87–9Google Scholar
