Carlos Caetano Biscaínho Fernandes
A finais da pasada década de sesenta, iníciase na Galiza un proceso de recuperación da actividade dramática vehiculizada en galego. Os participantes nese proceso refundacional do sistema teatral galego ignoraban inicialmente todo o realizado nos palcos do país antes do golpe de estado fascista. O réxime ditatorial encargárase de apagar calquera información que puidese servir de elemento cohesionador da sociedade galega e promovía outros trazos –intensamente folclorizados– que, permitindo una lasa filiación emocional coa terra, non colidisen coa súa ideoloxía imperialista. A recuperación e a posta en valor do sucedido teatralmente na Galiza antes de 1936 encaixaba perfectamente na vontade de contestación ao réxime e de procura dun espazo galego de participación cidadá que o franquismo negaba, vontade que os tiña levado ao reencontro coa reivindicación nacional. Os envolvidos na actividade escénica galega refundacional foron conscientes de que o coñecemento do pasado enriquece o imaxinario nacional e este representa unha poderosa arma contra a subalternidade. Repásanse aquí os paradoxos en que se tiveron que mexer, pois a actividade teatral galega das primeiras décadas do século XX ficaba temática e esteticamente moi afastada do teatro que se quería facer e trazar a ponte co pasado tornábase difícil.
At the end of the 1960s, a process of revival began in Galicia of theatrical productions performed in the Galician language. Initially, those involved in this process disregarded all work carried out on Galician stages prior to the Spanish Civil War. The dictatorial regime had managed to eradicate any information that might serve as a unifying element within Galician society, promoting instead another image – intensely folkloric in nature– one which, by admitting a certain affinity with the land, did not contradict its imperialistic ideology. For the theatre groups of the 1970s, the revival and appreciation of all theatrical work carried out in Galicia prior to 1936 were perfectly in line with their desire to express opposition to the regime and, also, with their search for a space for civic engagement, which was denied during the Franco dictatorship. This same desire led them to revive the call of previous generations for acceptance of national identity. Those involved in Galician theatrical productions were conscious that knowledge of the past enriched national imagery and thus represented a powerful weapon against subordination. The present paper examines the paradoxes in which those participating in Galician theatre had to contend, since theatrical activity in Galicia during the early decades of the twentieth century were thematically and aesthetically far removed from the type of theatre they wished to produce and bridging the gap with the past proved problematic.