Alejandro Casona and Nikolai Evreinov: Life as Theater

Alejandro Casona and Nikolai Evreinov: Life as Theater PHYLLIS ZATLlN BORING WHEN ALEJANDRO CASONA began writing plays in the years immediately preceding the Spanish Civil War, his concept of theater was very much in tune with the times. As Adela Palacio has noted, "EI teatro poetico de Casona respondia a gustos y exigencias, no solo espafioles, sino europeos." I As part of a widespread reaction against realism and naturalism in the theater, Casona emphasized the fantasies and illusions of his characters, thus creating a "double plane of reality and dream" that linked his works to those of Pirandello.' The possible literary relationship between Casona and the Italian playwright has been the subject of frequent critical discussion.' Not surprisingly, however, one may also find parallels between Casona's plays and those of other twentieth-century playwrights interested in similar themes. Some of these similarities are superficial, merely reflecting the Zeitgeist or the common impact of Pirandello, but in the case of the Russian Nikolai Evreinov, the influence on Casona may be direct. In their approach to theater, Pirandello (1867-1936) and Evreinov (1879-1953) had much in common.' Both were interested in creating a theater that destroyed the "illusionism" of the realistic and naturalistic stage, and both were concerned with dual and even multiple planes of illusion and reality. Moreover, the specific example of the illusionreality dichotomy that fascinated them was that of theater-life. Significantly , each of them authored a trilogy of plays that dealt with this theme' Throughout much of their careers, the two playwrights were 79 80 PHYLLIS ZATLIN BORING working in isolation from each other. In 1921, the year of the premieres of both Pirandello's Six Characters in Search oj an Author and Evreinov's The Main Thing, Pirandello was not yet acquainted with the Russian's works. It was after 1922, when Evreinov's play was staged in Poland, that Pirandello learned of him through a Polish friend. By 1924, however, when Pirandello had his own theater in Rome, he chose The Main Thing (Cio che piu importa) as the only non-Italian play to be produced that first season. The introduction of Pirandello and Evreinov to Spain came also in the 1920's. The first productions of Pirandello's works were staged in Barcelona in the period 1922-24.' In 1928, the well-known essayist, novelist and playwrighl Azorin translated Evreinov's The Main Thing, entitling it Ef Doctor Fregoli 0 La comedia de fa Jelicidad. Thus, both playwrights were known in Spain before Casona launched his own career as a playwright. Casona's first play, La sirena varada, written in 1929, was nol staged until 1934. Dealing directly with the illusionreality theme, La sirena varada is closely related to two later plays: Prohibido suicidarse en primavera (1937) and Los arboles mueren de pie . (1949). Although Francisco Ruiz Ram6n is quite justified in labeling the three a trilogy, they do not form as homogeneous a group as he believes, with a common "esthetic formula that is repeated without important variations.'" In fact, as we shall see, Ihere is a diminishing influence of Pirandello across Ihe three plays, while the final work bears a striking resemblance to Evreinov's pantheatricalism, specifically to The Main Thing. Casona gradually shifts from a Pirandellian theme of the individual's escape from reality through fantasy or lunacy, to Evreinov's concept of theatricalized life as a means of bringing happiness to others. It is perhaps because of this evolution in Casona's treatment of the illusion-reality theme that critics have not been in agreement whether Los arboles mueren de pie is still in the Pirandellian mode.8 As mentioned above, discussions of Casona's Pirandellianism are commonplace, but the influence of Evreinov on the Spaniard has gone virtually unnoticed. A critic in Buenos Aires, where Los arboles mueren de pie was first staged, did suggest that the play "contains a lot of La comedia de la Jelicidad by Evreinoff and also a great deal of Pirandelio ," but did not elaborate on the thought.' Rivas Andre, in proclaiming that Casona is not tied to any dramatic school, nevertheless acknowledges that "esponidicamente pueda citarse algun ejemplo como la obra del...