Sastre on Brecht: The Dialectics of Revolutionary Theatre

Sastre on Brecht: The Dialectics of Revolutionary Theatre Farris Anderson I Alfonso Sastre is one of a very limited number of postwar Spanish dramatists who have attracted attention outside Spain. He is also the only contemporary Spanish writer who has developed a dynamic, lucid theory of the drama. Since 1949, in hundreds of essays and two books, Sastre has explored virtually every aspect of the dramatic art in a sustained effort to find a theoretical basis for a valid contemporary theatre. 1 This search has been informed by Sastre’s own revolutionary values and has centered around the concept of realismo projundizado: “penetrative realism,” a realism which is not illusion-of-life naturalism nor unilateral socialist propaganda, but rather a clarification of the existential and social tensions that define contemporary man. Sastre’s theatre, in practice and theory, is essentially Aristotelian in its form and revolutionary in its ideology. Its aims are testimony, illumination, and agitation of consciences. Its dramatic tension derives from the dialectical confrontation of opposing realities which Sastre perceives as fundamental to the modem human condition: man as existence and man as history, despair and hope, thought and action, individual integrity and political necessity. In moral terms this dialectic becomes relativism. In philosophical terms it represents a search for reconciliation and synthesis, a desire to reintegrate modem man, alienated from himself, from his fellows, and from the forces that control his life. In social terms, Sastre’s dialectic calls for a socialist transformation of the world. And in dramatic terms it implies tensions, conflicts, painful decisions, and ambiguous resolution of complex entanglements. Sastre’s theoretical probing has taken him through the work of some modem giants of the theatre: Strindberg, Lenormand, O ’Neill, Miller, Sartre, and Beckett. His essays on these figures are significant attempts to expand the cultural horizons of Spain, whose intellectual and artistic life has been seriously limited, since 1939, by stultifying circumstances. Somewhat belatedly Sastre “ discovers” Bertolt Brecht and undertakes an energetic examination of the assumptions and practice of the Brechtian theatre. In addition to giving diffusion in Spain to Brecht’s thought, Sastre’s theoretical encounter with the great German artist is interesting because of the perspective it brings to the dramatic theories of both Sastre and Brecht. 282 Farris Anderson 283 Sastre’s interest in Brecht antedates by several years his actual examination and evaluation of Brecht’s theories. As early as 1950 Sastre had listed Brecht among the more vital dramatists of the day.2 Not until late in 1959 or early in 1960, however, did Sastre actually under­ take a thoughtful, systematic consideration of Brecht’s theories of alienation.3 Even at this late date, Sastre’s work on Brecht appears to represent the first detailed exposition of Brecht’s theories in Spain. Viewed in their totality, Sastre’s writings on Brecht have some­ what the character of a polemic, for they are unified by a consistent disagreement with Brecht’s dramatic theories. Yet Sastre owes much to Brecht. He finds himself in agreement with his ideological point of departure, and with his conclusions: the world needs changing and the theatre can contribute to that change. He differs with Brecht, however, on the techniques to be used in stimulating an audience to seek needed social reforms. Thus, while Brecht is a towering figure of the theatre to whom Sastre can relate intellectually, he is also the spokesman for certain dramatic principles which are opposed to Sastre’s own. This encounter challenges Sastre to examine and defend his own theories with greater precision and intensity. Sastre’s affinity for Brecht is quite understandable, for there are some truly remarkable parallels in the formation of the two men, in the circumstances of their work, and in the ideologies which have guided that work. Both Sastre arid Brecht combine theoretical specula­ tion with practical experimentation in the theatre. Both are playwrights who seek the corroboration of their theories in the practice of their art. Conversely, their theoretical principles have been derived in part from practical experience. Both men have worked actively with thea­ tre groups founded for the precise purpose of testing those principles: Brecht with his Berliner Ensemble, Sastre with the...