Teatro de la Comedia

The Teatro de la Comedia (Comedy Theater) is a theater in Madrid , inaugurated on Calle del Príncipe in 1875 and rebuilt in 1915 after a devastating fire.[1] In 1986 it was designated the headquarters of the National Classical Theater Company and in 1999 it was acquired, along with five other floors of the same building, by the Spanish Ministry of Culture.[2][3]

In October 2015, after being closed for thirteen years for renovation work, it reopened with a performance of The Mayor of Zalamea.[3] After this renovation, the hall has six hundred and thirty seats; in addition, it has a new hall with one hundred seats, called "Tirso de Molina".

Construction began in 1874 with a project by the architect Agustín Ortiz de Villajos , and it was inaugurated by Alfonso XII on September 18, 1875, with a performance of the play The Full-Length Mirror, starring Emilio Mario .[4] The façade was renovated in 1897 by the architect Francisco Andrés Octavio.

On March 23, 1914, a lecture by José Ortega y Gasset entitled "Old and New Politics" took place in the theater, serving as the presentation of the League for Political Education.[5] On the night of April 16, 1915, it was destroyed by fire and fully restored on December 22 of that year.[4] Between December 10 and 18, 1919, a congress of the National Confederation of Labor was held, in which the organization's provisional adherence to the Communist International was decided.[6] On October 29, 1933, José Antonio Primo de Rivera delivered the Founding Speech of the Spanish Falange , in which he established the foundations of his ideology.[4][7]

In 1970, the show Castañuela 70 , a popular experiment in independent theater in Spain , was performed at this theater with unprecedented critical and public success from August 21 to September 27: 74 performances and 51,833 spectators.[8] After repeated threats and the final assault by several groups of far-right thugs disguised as left-wing agitators, it was banned "for disturbing public order" on September 28, 1970.[9] Later in the decade, and with the Transition completed, the theater management alternated all kinds of genres, even presenting the premiere of the Spanish version of the musical Cabaret .

In 2002, following a production of La dama boba , the theatre was closed for safety improvements to the building, which did not begin until 2009,[10] until its reopening in the 2015/2016 season, under the management of the National Classical Theatre Company.[11]

References

  1. ^ Suárez Perales, Ana (2003). The theater in Madrid . Madrid: La Librería. pp. 78-81.
  2. ^ Diario Crítico, ed. (December 24, 2008). "Theater criticism • plays at La Comedia" . Retrieved January 23, 2014 .
  3. ^ a b García, Rocío (October 15, 2015). "The Teatro de la Comedia reopens with the Zalamea drama" . El País . Madrid . Retrieved November 11, 2015 .
  4. ^ a b c Gómez García, 1997, p. 819.
  5. ^ Pflüger Samper, 2001, pp. 181-184
  6. ^ Guzmán, 1979, pp. 22-27
  7. ^ Montoliú, Pedro (April 17, 2015). "Removal from the façade" . Madrid . Retrieved December 16, 2015. "...the plaque is currently in storage at the National Classical Theater Company, which is awaiting a decision regarding its future, although its return to the façade is ruled out..."
  8. ^ Trancón, Santiago (2006). Castañuela 70. This was Spain, gentlemen . Madrid: Prosopon Editores. pp. 94 ff.
  9. ^ Video of the Goya Award-winning short documentary
  10. ^ De Castro, Antonio. "Teatro de La Comedia, between fire and closure" . Revista de la Unión de Actores . Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2014 .
  11. ^ Torres, Rosana (July 21, 2015). "The public reclaims the Teatro de la Comedia" . El País . Retrieved December 16, 2015 .
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