The problems of society always appear in theater plays. In a theater of yesterday, today and always. Take a look at this.
Some women rebel and decide to buy groceries from the supermarket without paying. It takes place in Aquí no paga nadie by Dario Fo. In a situation of generalized injustice, unemployment and prices go their own way. This great theater man, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature, wanted to reflect the social and economic crisis of Italy in the 70s in one of his satires against political power and capitalism. In the differences, the similarity with our present time is obvious.
This harmony between theater and current conflicts overlaps in other works that are not written today. In Aristophanes’ Las asambleistas, women propose that, given the poor political conditions, the government should be handed over to them to impose a regime based on community ownership. The current empowerment of women and feminism is fighting not to be more than men, but to be equal in a just, egalitarian world without sexist violence. And the scarce representation they still have in areas of power, or the despotism and popular revolt in Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna.
Do you know Hamlet’s monologue? “Which is greater for the soul: to endure the blows and arrows that insult fate, or to take up arms against a sea of calamities and face them and put an end to them?” From the same author Shakespeare, Macbeth with flaming greed for power, insecurity and fear of losing it.
The obsession with wealth is found in Molière’s The Miser. The helplessness of the person holding onto hope flows in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and competition and fierce consumerism are featured in Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman. For Calderón, life is a dream, and a great theater is a world where few adequately represent their part and everyone dreams of what it is until they wake up.
Caligula, the existentialist drama written by Albert Camus in a politically turbulent environment with the unstoppable rise of fascism in 1939, presents us with the oppression and fear he provokes. Fear that some will use it to make their own. A group of women just don’t have it. Tired of men being at war, they intend to put an end to this serious situation in Lysistrata, Aristophanes’ once more comical defense against warlike heroism. They prevent men from taking the money to continue fighting and refuse to have sex until they sign peace.
Cervantes wrote El retablo de las maravillas based on traditional literature and short stories. In a society that prefers self-deception and living in alienation, the privileges of the powerful are maintained and the lies of the so-called honest are exposed. But there is more discussion of wars in Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and her children. All of them are outraged and all are used without knowing exactly what they are fighting for. Soldiers, commoners and traders looking for interruptions are there. High command organizes conflicts and never intervenes.
Alfonso Sastre’s Fantastic Tavern presents the reflection of a system that always demands victims under the idea of a welfare society. Crises often bring this truth out strongly. What about El Tartuffe, Molière or the hypocrisy, cynicism and arrogance of many of the characters we see every day…
The analogies still hold true in King Ubu by Alfred Jarry. A kind of parody of the tragedy of Macbeth and a satire against the gluttony of great men. A precedent for theater of the absurd, which premiered in Paris in 1896. It took a day and a scandal broke out. It was not done again until 1908.
In short, the frustrations and bitterness of the environment surrounding individuals in Looking Back in Fury, written by John Osborne and released in 1956. There are many more. As you can see, it is possible to see mirrors of our reality. A theatrical past that can be projected into today’s world. Worse, tomorrow.