The "Problem" of the Spanish Theater Today

Abstract

Three times a year in Spain the theatrical world is gripped by a fever of enthusiasm and optimism.* These occasions are the beginnings of the three individual seasons into which the theatrical year as a whole is divided, the Fall season, the Winter season, beginning after los Reyes, and the Spring season, beginning on the Sabado de Gloria. Everyone speaks hopefully of the new plays, and all look forward to a happy and prosperous run for them. The plays are produced, the reactions are mixed, an air of disenchantment begins to settle over the scene, and then the final stage of the cycle is reached, when the critics, authors, actors, producers, and other professional observers are prompted to ask each other a question that in essence is one, though it may be phrased in several ways: Is there a crisis in the Spanish theater today? What is the problem of the Spanish theater today? or Why is the Spanish theater in a state of decadence? In the ensuing debate few people are rash enough to declare that in their considered opinion there is no crisis in the Spanish theater. Only a consecrated figure like Benavente can even appear to say it as he did in an interview (April, 1954) on the occasion of the opening of his 162nd play, El marido de bronce. Asked what he thought of the much-discussed crisis of the theater, he answered: They have always talked about crisis and they will keep on talking about it, but don't you pay any attention. If any crisis exists it will be an economic one. In that final if, however, which Don Jacinto casually tacked on the end of his pronouncement, lies the theme of thousands of anguished words about the future of the theater in Spain. For the most part the critics, admitted y or not, approach the question with the conviction that the Spanish theater is confronted with some problems whose solutions cannot easily be perceived. One may conveniently divide these critics into two broad groups. Some of them, like Benavente, consider that a crisis does not exist in the artistic world but rather that it is primarily a commercial crisis which is perhaps due to factors beyond the control of the artist. Parenthetically, a playwright like Benavente in his eighty-eighth year who still managed to have several plays produced every year may perhaps be excused for believing that no artistic crisis exists. There are others who, admitting the economic crisis, place the blame upon the artists, and often more specifically upon the playwrights. The economic crisis has multiple aspects which some observers recognize, but for the most part discussion revolves about the rising costs of play production. As Benavente remarked in the previously mentioned interview, with a theater's monthly budget of the old days one could hardly buy a dinner today. The reasons for the rise in costs are familiar to those who are concerned with the problems of show business everywhere: high labor costs, taxes, rent; in short, all of those expenses which have to be met before the curtain can rise on a show.