Lorca research

BIOGRAPHY

Lorca was born on June 5th 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros, a small village near Granada. Although they were quite a common family, his father (Mr. Federico García) was a respected and prosperous landowner, who decided to move the family into the main city, Granada, in 1909. However, Federico García Lorca wanted people to call him Lorca, which is her mother’s surname.

In 1919 he moved to the famous Residencia de estudiantes in Madrid, to continue his university work. There he met all kind of artists, including Salvador Dalí, with whom he had a relationship. He went to United States in 1929-1930 after a depressive period. He spent his time mostly in New York, where he wrote surrealistic poems and plays.

He went back to Spain, where the re-establishment of the Spanish Republic in 1931 allowed him to fully participate in the cultural life. He became director of La Barraca, a touring theatre company with the aim of bringing classical plays to rural audiences, which otherwise would have been so far away of being able to see this type of theatre. It was with La Barraca that he wrote his three most famous plays: Bodas de sangre (Blood Wedding), Yerma and La casa de Bernarda Alba (The house of Bernarda Alba). It was also with this company that he produced first his “rural” triology plays.

When the civil war started in 1936, he went back to Granada, although he knew it was one of the less secure places he could go: first of all, because of its conservative elite (almost the bigger in the whole Andalucia) and second of all, because he was already quite known.

On 16th August, 1936 he was arrested by the nationalists, tortured and, on 19th August he was shot because of his homosexuality and left-wing position and contacts. Lorca was thrown into an unknown grave somewhere between Víznar and Alfacar, near Granada.

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The society of its time, at least in the countryside of Andalucia, was so rural (practically all the economy was based on agriculture) and, in a way, basic. It was far away from the rationalism of the rest of western Europe, and there were still some magic beliefs going on there.

Lorca was really aware of this, and he wanted to preserve it. In fact, lots of people call him as a land poet and land playwriter, confirmed by what he said once: "I love the land. All my emotions tie me to it. The first memories I have are of the earth." And from here we can understand his attempts, during all his life, to keep the culture connected with its roots. These attempts were not only in theatre, as we can perfectly see with the two plays we are studying, but also with music (creating first amateur festival of Andalusian "Cante jundo", in order to protect Andalusian music from commercialization) and poetry (Romancero Gitano [Gipsy Ballads], with the same purpose).

However, he was not the only one who wanted to shake the current conventions of his time. Actually, he was a member of what is called the “Generation of 27”: a group of authors that started their course with firm connections to land and, later on, also used surrealistic techniques. His surrealistic works can be seen with “El Público” (attack to commercial theatre and the social order) and also “Así que pasen cinco años”. Apart from trying to criticize the rationalism in theatre, he also challenged audiences introducing controversial topics such as: homosexuality, class system and role of the women in society.

Due to this kind of rebellion we can perfectly see that he broke the conventions and, furthermore, he did it in two ways. The first one comes, as we commented before, from moving away from the rationalist tendency that provoked the decadence of tragedy, that provoked a high amount of empty comedies that just wanted to please middle class audience. At this point it’s important to note the completely failure of Blood Wedding in New York because, as Lorca similarly said, New York it’s only about money and oneself; how was that society going to understand the blood, mystery, speaking moons and old traditions from our still rural countryside?

The second convention he ignored was the theoretical problems that ancient Greeks set up for tragedies, and that European dramaturges tried to follow. He just wrote, wrote from and for the land, from and for the common people.

There are so many things that can be said about Lorca, but the last important one I want to comment is the double character he had towards the end of his life, due to the celebrity he started to become, that made him keep inside his real character. Perhaps from here we can understand better how the worries about what the others will say, are reflected in most of the characters of his plays.

To sum up, I wanted to quote three things Lorca said that, at the end, are the best material we have to understand him:

http://uwcimtheatreclass.blogspot.com/2008/02/lorca-quotes.html (I already posted them some days ago)

Neus.

Dramaturgy on Lorca's plays

“Art, like religion, has many places of worship.” ¹ Worshiping in the case of Lorca’s plays is in several centres, which are connected with environment in which he worked. As Spain's most deeply appreciated and highly revered poet and dramatist he found his inspiration in surrounding, Spain’s civil war, women’s rights, and tradition.
All of these subjects were not easy to write about; especially if you consider the fact that he was homosexual. There is opinion that one of the reasons he was murdered is homophobia. But, even without this circumstance he was under a lot of pressure, from one side he was telling the truth in his work, from other side this truth was not acceptable for Spain society at that time. This period, in which his, the most known plays were written (Blood Weddings, Yerma, House of Bernando Alba) 1933-1935 was period before Civil War (1936-1939). Therefore his plays are directly influenced by these historical circumstances, as well as by his life and searching for the freedom. Like many of his characters he is divided between what world sees (successful play writer) and what he really is, but he hides it (homosexuality). His stories, especially the one I am going to focus on, Blood Wedding and Yerma, talk about many themes, but they mostly emphasise women’s suppressed position in the society. This is period in Spain when women were paid the half amount of money that men were paid for the same job. This is period when women started searching for their rights. In the same time Lorca had opportunity to make distance of all these moments in his country, he left to America. In my opinion this gave him other perception of reality in the world and comparison this with situation in his country. That is where I find the reason why his plays are named as “folk’s trilogy”, because they were made for “folk” (people), after he saw the world he had desire to write about his own country, in the way it is. He wrote in different way, in way that everyone will understand, in the way how life goes, but also in the way he knew to express himself the best; in poetry. Many roles in Yerma, but also in Blood Wedding, say their roles in form similar to song, poem. Poetry was another love of Lorca’s, besides plays he also wrote poetry, which can be frequently found in these plays. This emotional expression we can observe as something more than simple Lorca’s satisfaction through writing both (poem and drama) in one whole; we can recognize deeper feelings inside of this mixture. Poem is light and melancholic, just like Yerma’s desire for a child, but also romantic, emotional and expression of courage, like characters in Blood Wedding. It all depends on the way how one reads and interprets these lines, through using all three centres (emotion, thought, action), but also from the way how actor asks himself 6 questions. These questions can be answered in totally different way than Lorca may imagined in his play, but this is approvable as long as essential thing which he wanted to say is said, because he used a lot of symbolism to say certain thing, that is how he made it internal, so we can adapt it to any time, any place. This is what makes art from any creation. Because, if you look at his plays you will see that they can be seen as the story tells, but you also can see at Yerma as Spain trying to reach freedom, or Bride from Blood Wedding as Lorca’s temptation to say what he think or just to revel his other side, which nobody has idea that it exists and it is against everything that society wants him to say or to be, not only from him but from everyone.



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¹Lan Silver, An introduction to the Art of Stage Directing, Stormville Art Press, New York


It is not only in theatre, you can take Pablo Picasso as an example and you will see that in his art he tried to aware people that nothing is as you see it in reality, it is how you feel it, because perfection is a word which represents something that every person can experience in different way, just like Lorca’s characters and Lorca himself see the world differently than society in which they live.
Only job that in this position any actor has is to be an artist who will make art alive, because art is life, Lorca doesn’t talk about anything but life.
Therefore his plays are so real, even cruel, but again it all depends on actor’s choice how will interpret this message.
From these facts it is obvious that his plays are perfect combination of modernity and tradition, truth and covered lies.
Whoever plays these roles his/her mission is to represent this struggle, inner and outer. In these plays heroic tension is very important component of character. It is fight between desire for freedom and learnt helplessness (term in psychology which means that one after many times of trying learn to not try any more, no matter will he, or will not succeed, he cannot change anything anymore – based on previous experience), between what everyone see and what character really feel, between life and death and more important; between what is more important and with what we loose and with what we gain something good. And the question, what is more important?
Lorca’s idea was to make plays about people, for people and by that to make change in society. His plays talk about Spanish people, but in the same time they talk about every person in the world, person who stands up and lays down every day and night, and without any knowledge about Lorca every person ask himself where is his place of worship. These plays are not answer on this question, they are only proof that this person is not alone in this confusion and that answer is somewhere between your centres of worship.

Lorca quotes.

Hey people! I thought it will be interesting for all of you to read some Lorca quotes. I took them from the introduction of the spanish edition of Blood Wedding that Alberto and I have.

Here you are!

"Theatre is poetry that rises from the book ..."

“There are new ways to give to theatre. Everything’s in daring to walk on them”

“-Do you refuse bourgeois audience?
-That one that delights itself with scenes in which the protagonist ties his tie whistling and suddenly calls his servant:… “Listen, Pepe, bring me…” That’s not theatre, nor is nothing. People from pits and boxes do the same every single day and therefore are pleased to see it. I would pull out the pits and boxes from theatres and would bring down the gods. In the theatre you have to let enter the espadrille audience. “¿Are you wearing, madam, a beautiful silk dress? Well then, go out!” The audience with esparto t-shirt, in front of Hamlet, in front of Aeschylus’s works, in front of all what is grand. The bourgeois is being the end of the dramatic in Spanish theatre.”

“Above all, it is necessary to understand why the theatre is in decadence. Theatre, in order to acquire again his strength, has to go back to common people, from who it has moved away. Theatre is, as well, a matter of poets. Without tragic sense there’s no theatre, and tragic sense is absent from today’s theatre. Common people know a lot about that.”