The Spanish horror theatre at the turn of the century: ten examples of Gothic scenography between the 18th and 19th centuries

Abstract

The dramatic subgenre initiated at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century in Spain, referred as «dramones» or «Gothic dramas», is still very controversial because of its hybrid nature between the literary and aesthetic movements of the Enlightenment, Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Along with the state of Madrid’s theatres, the scenography and the acting techniques at the time, in this article I carefully examine ten examples belonging to this type of works, characterized by elements of clear Gothic influence, which can be considered transitional, and that contribute to the transformation of a genre, in the heat of the Neoclassical reform, until the dawn of Romanticism.