Único estreno de Galdós fuera de Madrid: la Mariucha trabajadora, en medio de una huelga de carboneros

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Una respuesta a «Único estreno de Galdós fuera de Madrid: la Mariucha trabajadora, en medio de una huelga de carboneros»

1. 

   2015/07/16

   Alberto Pernales

   [ref4513] explica:

   Any study of Mariucha must take into account the fact that this play was the first and only work by Galdós to debut outside of Madrid. It opened instead in Barcelona, a labor-friendly city where the play’s thesis —redemption through hard work— would surely be well received. If that in itself were not important enough, in 1903, the city was in the midst of a contentious strike by the carboneros, a fortuitous circumstance that added depth and verisimilitude to León’s struggle to succeed in the working class world… Galdós could not have imagined a more sympathetic ambience and audience for his drama.

   But Don Benito also grasped the dangerous situation that surrounded the debut of his play. The strike had stirred up a significant amount of street violence; tempers were running high; and a steady flow of anti-establishment and pro-labor rhetoric kept the situation inflamed… Now, Galdós seemed to sense, was not the time to add fuel to the fire by flaunting aprons, and counters, and openly challenging traditional social, political, and religious structures. Not only could he see the immediate perils around him, he also vividly remembered what had happened only two years earlier with the debut of Electra in Madrid. The first presentations of this drama had shocked the nation and caused violent reactions from virtually the same factions drawn into battle in Mariucha —aristocracia and pueblo. It was then that Galdós learned a painful lesson about how key phrases, symbols, and charged topics could trigger dangerously aggressive behavior from highly engaged spectators. One critic, H. Chonon Berkowitz, wrote that in the first two acts of Electra: “Every happy phrase, every tense moment, was an occasion for demonstration”… Máximo’s bold suggestion about arson, Berkowitz continues, was “like tossing a flaming torch at the raucous-voiced and red-palmed ‘people’”… Galdós had no intention of sparking any kind of similar reaction with Mariucha; nor did he have any desire to relive the fear that he felt when his fellow citizens had rioted in the streets of Madrid. This time he would err on the side of caution. The apron and the counter, the same as other provocative elements, would be deleted.