Do idílio ao porrete: a dramaturgia para títeres de Frederico García Lorca

Abstract

Born on the countryside of an overly catholic and aristocratic Spain, Frederico Garcia Lorca became one of the most notorious figures of Spanish and world literature. His play work, impossible to separate from his poetry, became widely known due to its tragic span and its universal, recurring thematic of love, death and liberty. Lesser spread, yet not less important is his ludic spirit and the unrealistic forms of expression that brand all of his dramaturgy. By studying Lorca s biography together with his plays, one can notice an artist concerned with the renovation of the scene and its reception, whose objective was to have a popular acceptance by language and accessibility. Lorca wished that his recognition went beyond that of a cultured audience, as expected by an artist of his time and context, but wanted his dramaturgy to reach the simpler masses that he was familiar with while growing up. One form of reaching both crowds was the use of the popular puppet theatre (using gloves) known as guiñol (Spain) - entertainment that had an enormous influence on Lorca due to his exposure to it on Andalucían fairs since his young years. This kind of theather together with other rich experiences lived by the author as an artist part of the European vanguard, influenced his conception of theater art. Thus making it possible for one to trace similarities to modern animation theatre such as objects, shadows, body/face masks to mention a few of the techniques that enrich this genre beyond the puppets and other manipulation or building techniques. Lorca s premature death, the prohibition of his work during the Franco regime and the scarcity of critique of lorkian puppeteers are some of the difficulties that makes it hard to identify the works of this piece of theatre. In spite of it, the structures present in the texts allow an association to a certain amount of works, from which we had choose to analyse: O idílio da Carvoeirinha representing the newly presented theater of the author s youth -, Tragicomedia de don Cristóbal y la señá Rosita farsa guiñolesca en seis cuadros y una advertencia and Retablillo de don Cristóbal - farsa guiñolesca - written from direct influence of popular puppet theatre. The three pieces are distinct from each other however are equally analyzed under the light of specific methodologies according to its peculiarities and were chosen to represent different periods, illustrating the trajectory of lorkian dramaturgy and its theater for puppeteers. This paper reveals the main characteristics of puppet dramaturgy of García Lorca considering the relation between the three plays studied with each other, its own characteristics and its relations with other lorkian plays as well as the biographic aspects of Lorca as a theather Diretor and as a theater thinker.