VALLE-INCLÁN AND THE ART OF THE THEATRE

Abstract

In spite of the recent critical revaluation of Valle-Inclán's work and the evidence of a number of successful productions, the question of the theatrical suitability of his plays remains an open one. Broadly speaking, critical opinion is divided between those connected with the practical theatre (in particular, the critics of the review Primer Acto) who have strongly supported Valle's claim as a dramatist and the authors of more general literary studies such as R. Sender and A. Risco who have concluded that the plays are ‘teatro para leer’ and basically unsuited to the stage.

BSS Subject Index:

• VALLE-INCLÁN, RAMÓN MARÍA DEL (1866–1936)

Notes

¹ Divinas palabras, produced by José Tamayo in the Teatro Español, 1961; Águila de blasón, produced by Adolfo Marsillach in the Teatro María Guerrero, 1965. La cabeza del bautista, La enamorada del rey, La rosa de papel, produced by José Alonso in the Teatro Maria Guerrero, 1967.

²Ramón Sender, Valle-Inclán y la dificultad de la tragedia (Madrid 1965), 31–33, 35–36. Antonio Risco, La estética de Valle-Inclán (Madrid 1966), 128–31.

³See the following articles by José Monleón: ‘El teatro de Valle-Inclán’, Primer Acto, No. 82 (1967); ‘Don Ramón frente a su época’, Triunfo, Año XXI (1966), No. 233; ‘Don Ramón: Esperpento y Farsa’, Triunfo, Año XXI (1967), No. 244.

¹The following comment by the director of Águila de blasón (1965) confirms this: ‘Don Ramón no necesita que alguien dirija sus obras. Él lo da todo hecho. Lo único que hace falta es un buen artesano que le resuelva algún que otro problema técnico—"hombre, don Ramón, esta escena debajo del agua va a ser una lata"—y nada más.’ (A. Marsillach, ‘Águila de blasón’, Primer Acto, No. 82, 1967).

²One of the principal sources is Francisco Madrid, La vida altiva de Valle-Inclán (Buenos Aires 1943), which consists largely of Valle's own comments as recorded in the press at various stages’ of his career. Unfortunately, Madrid rarely gives his sources or dates the passages he quotes.

¹Quoted by Rafael Landín Carrasco in an article in A.B.C., 27 Feb. 1962.

² La lámpara maravillosa (Buenos Aires 1948), 145.

¹Fernández Almagro, Vida y literatura de Vaile-Inclán (Madrid 1966), 144–45.

¹Quoted from an interview with Juan López Núñez, Por esos mundos, 1 Jan. 1915.

²Pérez de Ayala, referring to Cuento de abril, which he describes as ‘un pequeño canon del drama poético’, equates the poetic force of the work with its collective spirit (Las máscaras [Buenos Aires 1948], 140).

¹Quoted from an interview with C. Rivas Cherif, La Pluma, Jan.1923.

¹See the Preludio to La marquesa Rosalinda.

¹Victoriano Durán, ‘Escenografía y vestuario: Valle-Inclán con sus acotaciones en verso’. La Vos, 20 Jan. 1936.

¹In this respect, the Belgian playwright Michel de Ghelderode (born 1898) offers an interesting parallel with Valle-Inclán. ‘Pour moi, l'oeuvre théâtrale n'existe pas sans la sensualité propre aux arts plastiques, ou alors n'existe que dans la forme d'un dialogue qui peut se lire et n'appelle pas la mise en scene’. (Les Entretiens d’Ostende [Paris 1956], 62). For a fuller discussion of the parallels between Valle and Ghelderode see Juan Guerrero Zamora, Historia del teatro contemporáneo (Barcelona 1961), Vol. 1.

²See also Valle's reported comments on the sofa scene in Zorrilla's Don Juan Tenorio as quoted by Gómez de la Serna, Don Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (Buenos Aires 1944), 107.

³ La hija del capitán and La cabeza del Bautista are the only plays which involve explanation of a situation pre-existent to the action.

¹See Divinas palabras, Jornada II, scenes 2 and 3.

²E.g., Águila de blasón, Jornada IV, scene 3 and Divinas palabras, Jornada II, scene 8.

¹C. Rivas Cherif, ‘Más cosas de don Ramón’, La Pluma, Jan. 1923.

²‘Valle, su habla, su idioma dialectal o dialecto idiomático, era teatral. Ni lírico, ni épico, sino dramático, y a trechos tragicómico’ (Unamuno, ‘El habla de Valle-Inclán’, Ahora [Madrid], 29 Jan. 1936).

¹R. Benítez Claros, ‘Metricismos en las Comedias Bárbaras’, (Revista de literatura, III, 6 [1953], 247–91) lists a series of Valle's dialogue techniques (use of metrical forms, repetitions, Gallego rhythms, etc.) but without relating them to his conception of the theatre or of dramatic dialogue.

¹Examples of scenes with a marked rhythmical structure: Águila de blasón, Jornada II, scene 2; Divinas palabras, Jornada II, scene 5; Los cuernos de don Friolera, scene 6.

¹ Divinas palabras, Jornada I, scenes 4 and 5.

¹E. Ionesco, Notes et Contre-notes (Paris 1962), 24.

²The parallels between Valle-Inclán's theatre and the general European movement away from naturalism towards a non-rational conception of the theatre (Jarry, Ghelderode, Artaud, culminating in the ‘Absurdist’ playwrights of the fifties) still awaits serious study. Valle's esperpentos certainly present a number of interesting points of comparison apart from the characteristic blend of farce and tragedy mentioned here.

³See the essay by Aldous Huxley, ‘Tragedy and the Whole Truth’, included in Music at Night.

¹ The Playboy of the Western World and The Tinker’s Wedding have a Valleinclanesque flavour.

¹Valle also uses this technique in Romance de lobos, Cara de Plata, Luces de bohemia and Los cuernos de don Friolera. See La lámpara maravillosa, 59–63.