The Contemporary Spanish Theater: A Collection of Critical EssaysMartha T. Halsey, Phyllis Zatlin The essays that Martha Halsey and Phyllis Zarlin have written and collected in this volume deal with plays and playwrights primarily and only incidentally with actors, producers, theater buildings, mime, and other such manifestations of the performing arts. The period the authors cover is from the 1940s to the present. The Spanish Civil War (1936-39) shattered theatrical life. After the conflict ended on April 1, 1939, the theater was barely nourished by recourse to its past. Then "the contemporary Spanish theater" began on a particular date: October 14, 1949. On that night a new playwright, Antonio Buero Vallejo, saw the first performance of his Historia de una escalera (Story of a Staircase) produced at the Teatro Español. It spoke deeply to Spanish audiences then, and instilled a new vitality into the Spanish theater and attracted to drama a new generation of playwrights. It is those writers and younger ones that have followed in their footsteps that are studied in this fine collection of essays. The distinguished editors introductory essay, "Is There Life after Lorca?" is a readable survey of the period, and it sets the tone for the following specialized essays by other authors and by themselves. |
Contents
STAGES ILLUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS | 25 |
THE THEATRICAL GAP BETWEEN SASTRES CRITICISM AND | 49 |
THE METATHEATRICAL IMPULSE IN POSTCIVIL | 79 |
Copyright | |
11 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
action actors Alfonso Sastre Antonio Buero Vallejo Antonio Gala Arrabal's artistic audience avant-garde Buero Buero-Vallejo Catholic Catholicism characters Chivas Church comedy comic Coronada critical death dramatist Els Joglars esperpentos Estreno expressionism expressionistic Fernando Arrabal final freedom Gala's García Goya grotesque guilt Hans Küng historical human innovative intellectual José José López Rubio Juan Juan's Larra liberation López Rubio Lorca Luis Madrid María Martín Recuerda Martínez Mediero metatheatrical Miguel Mihura Modern International Drama moral Nieva Nínive nudity performance Petra play play's playwrights political portray present prison production protagonist psychological Ramón Ramón del Valle-Inclán realistic reality religious represents Riaza Rodríguez Méndez role Roman Chronicles Ruiz Iriarte Saint Salom Sastre's satire scene Servet sexual sister Sleep of Reason social society soldiers Spain Spanish Drama Spanish stage spectators story symbolic Teatro theatrical theme traditional tragedy tragic Translated Trini Valle Valle-Inclán Valle's Vallejo Velázquez victim Wellwarth writers York young