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.