The farce It is a type of short play, which has a burlesque or comic tone and represents popular themes. For example: The mocked landlord, by Ramón de la Cruz.
The sainete belongs to the dramatic genre, it emerged in Spain at the end of the 18th century as a replacement for the interlude, it was represented between acts of other types of longer works, generally comedies, and it was usually accompanied by music, singing and dancing.
In addition, at the end of the 19th century in Argentina and Uruguay, a variation of this theatrical subgenre was produced, which was called Creole farce and was very similar to the Spanish one, but with some modifications.
Characteristics of the Spanish farce
The characteristics of the Spanish farce are:
- Time and origin. The Spanish farce arose in 1780 in Spain and continued to be written and performed up to and including the 20th century.
- Topics. The themes of the Spanish sainete are love, deceit, popular and local customs, among others. In addition, in this type of work ridiculous and grotesque situations are represented.
- Characters. The characters of the Spanish sainete, generally, are bourgeois and people of low class and of the rural world. In addition, the speeches of the characters try to imitate the dialects and slang of the real subjects.
- spaces. The spaces of the Spanish sainete are usually typical places of the city or the countryside that are represented in the scenery of the staging.
- Structure. At first, the Spanish farce consisted of a single act and a simple plot, but later it included more acts and the plot became more complex. In addition, this theatrical subgenre is usually written in romance, that is, in eight-syllable verses (of eight syllables) with assonance rhyme (only the vowels from the last accented vowel of the verse coincide) in the even verses.
- Style. The style of the Spanish sainete is costumbrista, because it shows the reality and habits of the different social groups, and it is humorous, because the plot is humorous and because the characters use gestures to produce a comic effect. However, skits can end with a tragic ending. In addition, they usually have a satirical style with respect to the subjects of society or parodic in relation to other literary subgenres, such as tragedies and comedies.
Creole sainete characteristics
The Creole sainete shares many characteristics with its Spanish predecessor, but presents some changes:
- Time and origin. The Creole farce had its heyday between 1890 and 1930. This type of subgenre derived from the Spanish farce, which in the 19th century was performed in Buenos Aires by Spanish theater companies.
- Topics. The themes of the Creole farce are closely linked to the literature of realism and, therefore, to the political and social context. Some of them are immigration, work, failure, social advancement, poverty and love.
- Characters. The characters in the Creole farce are usually low or middle class people or immigrants. In the early skits, immigrants are portrayed in a positive light, but later they are caricatured and satirized. In addition, with the passage of time the characters began to be deeper and more complex and to be better constructed. As with the Spanish farce, dialects and slang are included to represent the language of different social groups.
- spaces. The spaces of the Creole farce are typical places of Buenos Aires, such as the conventillo (a house where many families live), immigrant neighborhoods, squares and workplaces.
- Structure. The Creole farce generally consists of a single act and can be written in verse or prose.
- Style. The style of the Creole farce is burlesque, because it has a comic effect, it is realistic, because it seeks to reflect social phenomena and because the works are credible, and, in many cases, it is satirical, because society is criticized with caricatures and with a humorous tone. In addition, one of the objectives of the Creole farce is to moralize and transmit teachings to the viewer.
Examples of Spanish farce
- The tongue comediansby Juan Ignacio González del Castillo (1763-1800). In this sainete the story of a theater company that travels through different towns is represented and the comedy is parodied.
- Manoloby Ramón de la Cruz (1731-1794). This farce represents a story of love, honor and betrayal in which Manolo and other characters participate and which takes place in Lavapiés, a neighborhood in Madrid.
- sunny morningby Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero (1871-1938 and 1873-1944). In this sainete the love story of Doña Laura and Don Gonzalo is represented with a satirical and comic tone.
- The grandmotherby Ricardo de la Vega (1839-1910). In this sketch, several stories of love, deceit and jealousy are represented with a humorous and satirical tone.
- The delights of the Canal in boats, snacks and dancesby Sebastián Vázquez (18th century). In this farce, stories of entanglements and confusion are represented with a realistic tone in which twenty-three characters appear.
Examples of Creole farce
- The convent of the Doveby Alberto Vaccarezza (1886-1959). This farce represents the story of a group of people who live in a tenement. Almost all men are in love with the same woman, the Dove, which causes entanglements and jealousy.
- creole justiceby Ezequiel Soria (1873-1936). In this farce, the story of Teresa is represented, a woman who lives in a tenement and who must choose to take justice into her own hands or through the State.
- Gabino the mayoral, by Enrique Garcia Velloso (1880-1938). In this farce, the story of Gabino is represented, a man who works on the train and who has a love story with a woman.
- the eviction, by Florencio Sanchez (1875-1910). This farce depicts the story of Indalecia, a woman who, along with her children, is evicted from the tenement in which she was living.
- the disguisedby Carlos Mauricio Pacheco (1881-1924). In this farce, the Carnival celebration is represented in a tenement, including reflections on love, the political situation of the time, work and identity.
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References
- Cazap, S. and Massa, C. (2002). The Creole farce. Mimesis and caricature in N. Jitrik and MT Gramuglio (Eds.), Critical history of Argentine literature: the royalist empire (1 ed., Vol. VI), pp. 129-141. I started.
- Flecniakoska, JL (1982). A forgotten sainetero: Juan Ignacio González del Castillo (1763-1800). Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the International Association of Hispanists, pp. 507-525. University of Salamanca.
- Lorenzo Arribas, JM (September 25, 2006). Farce, an interstitial bite. Cervantes Virtual Center. Available at: Cervantes Virtual Center
- Sala Valldaura, JM (2015). Farce. In Spanish Dictionary of International Literary Terms. Available at: DETLI