From Don Juan Tenorio to Bécquer’s horror tales: the Spanish theatrical custom resists Halloween | Culture | EUROtoday

Pumpkins and terrifying costumes have unfold in recent times in Spain, adopting the Anglo-Saxon celebration of Halloween, however there are native traditions that also resist this onslaught. There are those that mud off their swords, put together their capes and rehearse—as in the event that they wanted them—among the most acknowledged verses of Spanish theater: these of the Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla, premiered for the primary time in 1844. As the deceased have a outstanding position within the decision of the plot, performances of this work grew to become a convention within the festivals round All Saints’ Day, to the purpose of which continues to be replicated at present in quite a few settings within the nation, within the midst of the industrial bustle of “trick or treat.” They are fastened Tenorios from Valladolid (Zorrilla’s hometown) and Alcalá de Henares, however this yr the Fernán Gómez theater in Madrid has joined the record with its personal manufacturing and in addition provides one other that has one of the crucial fashionable horror tales as its place to begin of Spanish literature: He mountain of souls, by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, dated 1861.

The playwright José Ramón Fernández has assembled this story with different related tales by Bécquer, all of them primarily based on fashionable legends, to place collectively a container present that adopts the title of The mountain of souls. “We love horror stories. We like to think about what will happen after death, but of course what reaches us the most is what comes from the Anglo-Saxon empire and we stay with that. What is found in those stories of immortal or revived monsters, in today’s cinematographic tradition, is found in many of the legends of Spanish romanticism,” says Fernández. He is amazed that Madrid residents, for instance, “know everything about Halloween, but not that a headless man appears in the church of San Ginés.” Ignacio García and Pepa Fernández, co-directors of the manufacturing, emphasize this concept: “We had the need to claim a way to celebrate All Saints’ Day in our own way. And we do it with essential texts of Spanish literature to make them known to those who have not been able to approach them, for whatever reason.”

Ignacio García also directs the Don Juan which has been programmed in parallel by the Teatro Fernán Gómez, with a cast headed by Manuela Velasco and Carles Francino. “We have suffered an Anglo-Saxon invasion of Halloween. I don’t think we should resist all the good that foreign traditions bring, but it is a shame to lose our own,” García insists. Despite everything, the two performances scheduled at the Fernán Gómez (this Thursday and Friday) have already sold out. “We love these great Anglo-Saxon myths, but many of those stories were already in our literature,” warns the director. And that of Don Juan is, of these tales, the one which has greatest survived the passage of time.

“Playing Don Juan is one of the dreams that every actor has. He, Hamlet, Segismundo… are characters that everyone wants to have in their suitcase,” displays actor Antonio Pagudo. In his physique, essentially the most well-known mocker of the theater will tour the orchard of the Archbishop’s Palace of Alcalá de Henares, in Madrid, in one of the crucial huge performances of the Tenorio that are celebrated yearly round All Saints’ Day, to the purpose that it’s promoted because the Don Juan de Alcalá. On the nights of October 31 and November 1, practically 10,000 folks per day will repeat verses with him just like the one which begins: “It is not true, angel of love…”. “In Alcalá everyone knows the texts and they say them with you. It’s like when Shakira or Karol G. sing at a concert,” says Pagudo, nonetheless with the cape falling over his again, after considered one of his rehearsals. With it, virtually 100 folks work to carry this Spanish traditional to the stage once more, commissioned this yr by the Yllana theater firm, specialised in gestural comedy. A complete of 18 actors on stage, 25 volunteers, two riders—with their horses, in fact—two weapons coordinators and 30 technical staff members. A real theatrical occasion, declared a competition of nationwide vacationer curiosity in 2018, which has been occurring for 40 years—two pandemic interruptions in between—on the identical dates and with continued success in attendance, even when the primary chilly climate of autumn hits.

Zorrilla’s verses survive regardless of the hustle and bustle of an Anglo-Saxon get together that may carry collectively 4.2 million folks in Spanish nightlife this yr, in response to the forecasts of the nightlife federation España de Noche. For Joe O’Curneen, director of the Alcalá de Henares manufacturing, the important thing to its survival is that the work “speaks about the human condition and is still relevant”, but additionally that “it has known how to combine tragedy and comedy always.” In Yllana’s reading of the text, they find more comedy than is usually represented: “Zorrilla was writing comedy scenes at many occasions, which may be seen with nice gravity, as common, but additionally as a sport.” Rafa Boeta, who signed the version with O’Curneen, and who has been in charge of marrying the author’s original vision with that of the company, shares the same thought: “The text is a solid mix between comedy and tragedy, as all our Castilian tradition. The Golden Age is a permanent transition between the terrible and the comic, something like what happens in current reality.”

In addition to the traditional production of Alcalá, special mention deserves the one in Valladolid, performed since 1977 in the theater named after the author of the text, Zorrilla, by the company of the Association of Friends of the Theatre, which this year has the direction of Elena Benito. But despite the success of representations as deep-rooted as these, the tradition of representing the Tenorio on the eve of All Saints’ Day it is no longer as common as before. “It is a tradition that is being lost,” laments Ignacio García. “In Madrid, for example, from the beginning of the last millennium and until the nineties, the Spanish theater made a Don Juanbut for 20 years it has been impossible to find one at this time,” he concludes. That is why he has decided to return the myth to the capital’s stages with his own version.

With its double proposal, Fernán Gómez does not intend to rival the popular Anglo-Saxon tradition, but to prevent the Spanish one from disappearing. “I don’t like to see theater as a confrontational element, but in culture we have a shared responsibility, we must be guarantors of maintaining a legacy and heritage,” says García. “The success of Tenorio It is not the success of an author, nor the success of a work, it is a collective decision to make this work an emblem,” concludes the director. Rafa Boeta thinks something similar: “Before there was no Halloween in Spain, now there is. A tradition that is alive has to adapt to its own circumstances. “Mestizaje, that tradition travels, that’s our trendy period.” And in this modern age, here is the Spanish tradition for whoever wants something from it.