Historia de una escalera (1947)

Antonio Buero Vallejo (1916-2000)

• Written during the dictatorship, is usually the work he is most associated with
• Was imprisoned for years after the end of the Civil War, had been a medic on the Republican side, spent six years in jail, was sentenced to death, was out by 1946
• Did not go into exile, remained in Spain, utilized symbolism to criticize dictatorship (hence, the fame of Historia de una escalera)
---Put on the stage in 1949
• TRAGEDY
• Representation of deterioration and vejez (old age), important to contemplate this work within its context and situation
• Theater dominated by evasive tone, or works from past playwrights like Benavente
• Tragedy of the common man, doesn’t have to be ‘great or grand’ people
• In the same year Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman came out, saw convergences with his own work
• Outside Spanish borders, a new theater developing: “El existencialismo como actitud individual y la consideración del destino de los grupos menos afortunados de la sociedad.”
• Another contemporary work La familia de Pascual Duarte by Cela
• *** 2 key innovations:

1) la tragedia contemporánea, con personajes del aquí y ahora del vivir cotidiano del momento de las respectivas escrituras
2) La nueva formula del teatro histórico, entendido como revisión de nuestro más conflictivo pasado y como iluminador de las acciones presentes
• Social Realism; pueblo oprimido por las penurias económicas o las trabas individuales y sociales q soportan los menos afortunados
• How does the end affect the reader? More so than the actors?
-“Es difícil pensar que la vida va a cambiar para la joven generación q se promete un destino distinto del de sus padres…el texto…nos induce a una interpretación q frustra las esperanzas de los personajes q intervienen en el drama.”
• Over 30 years time in this obra
• We don’t see what happens out in the streets or the interior of the viviendas (Escenas omitidas)

Urbano: Proletario sindicalista q pretende la acción colectiva
Fernando: Individualismo insolidario

Acto 1: opens with cobrador de luz coming around to collect payment for light/electricity, Paca yells at him, one woman can’t pay and the more wealthy neighbor Don Manuel can, so he does. Cobrador de luz hates his job, is a symbol of the repressive economic forces against these people. Anticipation within the conversations of people of the love conflict between Elvira and Fernandito and Carminaor the violence of Urbano (who threatens throwing Cobrador down the stairs)
Escena III: development of the relationship bt Fernando y Carmina

Everything repeats itself. The same dialogues are repeated. The kids of Fernando and Carmina are replicas of themselves, Fernandito and Carmina, hija. Fernando’s kid smokes in the same casinillo that Fernando smoked in as a kid, and had the same crush on Carmina that his kid has on Carmina, hija. Fernandito has the same dreams and says the same thing about becoming a better person, taking her out of this dreadful place, becoming an engineer, same dreams, same hopes, we already know how this story ends, it’s the story of their parents.
Time: 30 years pass, and from textual references, we know it starts in 1917 and ends in 1947, contemporary time. Nothing changes during this 30 years, except for the people age and the owner of the building fakes making it nicer. Also, at the end of the 30 years new neighbors which represent the new money and higher class, oficinistas and businessmen, and who look down on their poorer neighbors; they want them to move out so they can take over their places and have bigger apartments. They are symbolic of modernization and industrialization, talk about once the poorer residents are kicked out they will have an elevator, and talk about new cars.
Time: 10 years passes like it’s nothing, like it’s a day. Feeling of stagnation, they have nothing to look forward to except DEATH. Obsession with death. We also find out at the beginning of each act who has died. Stagnation of the dictatorship, the years pass, the people age, and everything remains the same, there is no progress, no moving forward, no visible changes, hope is squashed, whether you decide to confront it yourself or in a group (Individualism vs. Syndicalism) represented by Fernando and Urbano, Dreamer vs. Obrero
Action: All of the action takes place offstage, except for the final confrontation between Urbano and Fernando and Elvira and Carmina. We know about people from conversations, it’s all chisme chisme.
Fractured love stories: Carmina loves Fernando and Fernando loves Carmina, but they do not end up together because Elvira, whose father had money $$$, seduces Fernando for her money $$$. Instead of getting out of the same vicious cycle, stuck in it even deeper.
Nostalgia: nostalgic for juventud, the innocence of their youth and dreams which are quickly crushed, they fight to keep the past alive but are defeated, and we get the image of little Manolín, Fernando’s independent kid, who has a birthday and wants pasteles, but his parents can’t afford to buy him some, and he hits on Trini who wants to give him money to buy pasteles and he acts tough smoking instead, same old story, repetition
End up the same: no matter if they take different paths, they all end up the same, miserable, poor, unhappy…Fernando and Urbano, dreamer and worker, individual and syndicalist, both end up repressed poor and living in the same building they grew up in on the 5th floor without an elevator. Trini and Rosa also end up the same, Trini is single and Rosa ends up alone after marrying womanizer, Trini prude and Rosa prostitutes herself to pay the bills…sad, it’s all very sad.
Pauses/Silences: Lots of pauses, silences, silence speaks and has meaning in this play, creates suspense but also reflects the mood of melancholy that permeates the play.