2023 Author: Jake Johnson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 23:11
Today we study the work of Alfonso Sastre, a remarkable playwright in the written theater from the year 1940 in Spain. Together with two other greats such as Miguel Mihura and Antonio Buero Vallejo, Sastre his work Squad towards death, from 1953, opens one of the most stellar and hopeful moments of the Spanish drama after the civil war. Previously, around 1945, this playwright, together with other authors such as Alfonso Paso or Medardo Fraile, among others, had founded a theater group called Arte nuevo that was looking for a type of experimental theater. But, due to economic reasons, the company disappears two years after its creation.
Before Squad to Death, Sastre wrote some theatrical pieces that were not very long and difficult to perform, such as Pathetic Prologue, from 1950, or The Garbage Can, from 1951. It was already in 1953 when Squad was released towards death, a work that due to the censorship of the moment is only performed twice. It arises in a warlike environment and rises up against militaristic thinking and denounces the state of society mutilated by the effects of war. In this work, Alfonso Sastre warns that a revolution carried out without organization and in an improvised manner has undesirable consequences.
In creating the characters, the author does not focus on individual strengths or weaknesses, but gives them a universal character. Thus, each of the six members of the squad represents universal values: Corporal Gobán embodies the traditional values of the military and will try to impose the rigor and tyranny of that world;Javier represents the intellectual and chooses suicide as the only way to freedom; Adolfo is a selfish soldier who lacks scruples and ends up disappearing in the bush; Andrés is the first of the members to turn against Corporal Gabon and end up changing sides; Pedro surrenders and tells the truth, for him death means salvation; and Luis symbolizes innocence.
After Squad to Death, Sastre's theater is characterized by taking a critical stance and denouncing the most negative aspects of Spanish society. Until 1969 he wrote more than twelve plays and in that year he founded with José María de Quinto the Realistic Theater Group which for the first time performed plays such as Dressing the Nude by the writer Pirandello, The inkwell by Carlos Muñiz and works by Sastre himself such as En la red. From then on, the playwright will also be in charge of staging the works of prestigious writers such as Sartre or Strindberg.
Alfonso Sastre's work has been classified by Ricardo Doménech into four main lines:
