Any play which begins with white figures in cubic horse masks whistling loudly in anguish down kazoos is bound, at first, to be somewhat bombarding and confusing, especially if you are, as myself, versed neither in El Público’s language of delivery nor its surrealist medium. It is this kind of throughout-laden spectacle, however, compellingly executed by the cast and crew of Salvador Kent’s recent production, which brings to the fore the question, “What meaning does all of this hold?”
Knowing that its author, Frederico García Lorca, comes from the same tradition as the likes of Dalí, it wouldn’t surprise anyone that you won’t find meaning in El Público in the traditional sense; there is no obvious moral of the story. In fact, although it may have a narrative, it doesn’t particularly want to be a story at all, taking the shape more of a series of related but independent frames, rather than a full reel of film. This fragmented format allows for the diverse exposition of repression, insecurity, and sexuality within the tormented mind that the play takes place in. It is certainly strange to find oneself at one moment in a theatre within a theatre, another in a hospital, and sometimes in completely opaque spaces, all with very little explanation. But, between the bedlam, we are made to focus keenly on the complex range of emotions performed. We see, for example, in quite brutal terms, both sides of internal conflicts between dominance and submission. In such scenes, the contrast between anguish and smugness is not only laid bare, it is transferred to us as we recall and relate our own moments of turmoil to the scenes on stage.
None of this emotional exploration is without context, however. The power dynamics between battling personalities can be taken as self-reflections on Lorca’s behalf; to say the least, he had a complex relationship with sexuality, but taking one step further, we begin to see how these personalities may, to some extent, have been informed by the social and political atmosphere of the time. The character of the Emperor in particular, whose domineering presence on stage is felt deeply, seems to marry up quite nicely with the surge of conservatism in Spain at the time Lorca was writing in the 20s and 30s, if not specifically with its nationalist leader Primo de Rivera. In this way, El Público doesn’t just display feelings, it holds that display up to us as a mirror, which in turn provokes an awareness of how easily the winds of our time can subconsciously seep into aspects of our being. The meaning of this surrealist play can then be found contradictorily in an egalitarian moral about the power we hold within to choose which aspects of ourselves we allow to be influenced, and which we decide to precede.
Image by @katycf__ via Bedlam Theatre