The theater takes shape in the sceneBut it usually starts its way in a dramatic text. Therefore, in the World Theater Day And while the rooms are completely reopened to get closer to this proposal, we are going to take a tour of works that offer us an overview of the relationship between performing art and its book form.
To start, how about Yerma, the work of one of the most important poets not only in Spanish literature, who sought to give different outlets to his poetic and dramatic concerns: in this piece, Yerma is incomplete because she does not have, nor will she have, a child.
“However, it lacks much more, everything that would make it possible: love, tenderness, compassion, passion, liberation and the curiosity to explore the experience that is beyond family limits.”
Didactic Castalia has a version of Yerma and an edition by Antonio A. Gómez Yebra, who not only offers an introduction, but also notes and calls for attention, guidelines for the study and textual notes of one of the dramatic pieces in García Lorca’s work.
Criticisms of the powers of his time
Now let’s go a little further back with The villain in his corner (Castalia Clásicos, with an edition by Juan Antonio Martínez Berbel), by Lope de Vega. Known as one of the most important writers in the history of Spanish literature and owner of a controversial life – some biographers assure that many times away from the norms and morality of the moment ”, the poet and playwright was not only in charge of telling his adventures , but even, to criticize the powers of his time.
This happens with The villain in his corner, where he tells the story of a rich commoner, “who accumulates all the good qualities that could be demanded of a good vassal of imperial Spain”, who is visited by the king, in what becomes an approximation to the use of power during the Golden Age.
One of the most prominent figures in Spanish theater in the first half of the 20th century was Enrique Jardiel Poncela (Madrid, 1901-1952), part of what historians have called “the implausible generation”, and considered as the renovator of humor modern Spanish.
Of this journalist, film scriptwriter, novelist and playwright, Editorial Funambulista published the volume Unrepresentable theater, where one of the Spanish writer’s searches is combined: “I am going to give the theater a father called humor and a mother called poetry, from which only authentic humor can be born,” he wrote on different occasions.
A playwright who, in the development of his plots, offers unforeseen situations, emotional and surprising effects, mysterious characters, largely because he had the ability to always combine humor with poetry, thus generating a school of “followers and imitators which continues to this day ”.
To close a theater weekend, especially for those who prefer to wait for conditions to be different, let’s get closer to Lear. The great image of authority (Broken Glass Ediciones), by Harold Bloom.
Most moving characters in world literature
Controversial in the construction of his canon, but respected for the depth of his reflections, Bloom offers in this book an approach to one of the most moving characters in world literature, the archetype of “the fall of authority and the paradigm of the deposition of filial love in favor of power ”.
A review in 17 chapters that seek to contribute to the interpretation of Shakespeare, but at the same time to have a more current reading of the drama and, at different times, within its relationship with Hamlet, the king of Denmark.
In this contemporary look, Harold Bloom poses in Lear. The great image of authority asks: “Yes, like Lear, we should not all cry for having come to this great theater of crazy people ”. A question that could well be launched in a tweet today, even though that reflection was made by Shakespeare in 1605.
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