A paradoxal asimilación da actividade teatral anterior á Guerra Civil no momento refundacional do teatro galego

Abstract

At the end of the 1960s, a process of revival began in Galicia of theatrical productions performed in the Galician language. Initially, those involved in this process disregarded all work carried out on Galician stages prior to the Spanish Civil War. The dictatorial regime had managed to eradicate any information that might serve as a unifying element within Galician society, promoting instead another image – intensely folkloric in nature– one which, by admitting a certain affinity with the land, did not contradict its imperialistic ideology. For the theatre groups of the 1970s, the revival and appreciation of all theatrical work carried out in Galicia prior to 1936 were perfectly in line with their desire to express opposition to the regime and, also, with their search for a space for civic engagement, which was denied during the Franco dictatorship. This same desire led them to revive the call of previous generations for acceptance of national identity. Those involved in Galician theatrical productions were conscious that knowledge of the past enriched national imagery and thus represented a powerful weapon against subordination. The present paper examines the paradoxes in which those participating in Galician theatre had to contend, since theatrical activity in Galicia during the early decades of the twentieth century were thematically and aesthetically far removed from the type of theatre they wished to produce and bridging the gap with the past proved problematic.