Calderón entre líneasosadía y heterodoxia a escena con el Teatro Corsario

Abstract

Fernando Urdiales, founding member and director of Teatro Corsario until his death in 2010, believed that Calderón's dramaturgy was more dialectic than pedagogical in nature. This belief ran contrary to the dominant critical posture. According to Urdiales, "Calderón does not articulate personal views in his works, he allows his characters to express themselves and lets the viewer perceive and interpret the characters' views. Calderón has this great ability." This attitude explains, at least in part, the absolute freedom with which Corario's artistic director staged a number of Calderón's works: a short religious play, El gran teatro del mundo (1990), a pre-romantic drama, Amar después de la muerte (1993), a couple of pieces from among his short plays for the performance of Clásicos locos (1994), his masterpiece, La vida es sueño (1995) and a mythological fiesta, El mayor hechizo, amor (2000). Recently, and without its original spearhead, Teatro Corsario has gone back to the established Calderón with one of the most intense and controversial dramas by the Golden Age master: El médico de su honra, directed by one of the great veterans among Corsario actors, Jesús Peña, the creator of puppet shows. In this article, I intend to examine the characteristics that make Calderón an emblematic author for Teatro Corsario, the company's readings of his works and how they are reflected in the aesthetics (and poetics) of its stagings. I also make use of Fernando Urdiales' personal papers, bequeathed by the director of Corsario to the city council of Olmedo, which include much graphic documentation, his dramatic adaptions and notebooks.