Published Plays
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· Reflexiones de un dramaturgo solitario. Author: John Gabriele
To read "Reflexiones de un dramaturgo solitario " click HERE
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· Article: "El teatro de Alfonso Vallejo" Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos 416 (1985) pp 7-8. Author: Sabas Martín.
To read "El teatro de Alfonso Vallejo" click HERE
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· Article: Revista de la Unión de Actores, nº 58, julio, agosto, septiembre 2000.. Author: Alfonso Vallejo.
To read "Revista de la Unión de Actores, nº 58" click HERE
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Train to Kiu, Sulphuric Acid, The Scrap yard. Publishers Fundamentos (1978) Prologue: José Monleón
To read "El cero transparente" click HERE
To read "Sulphuric Acid" click HERE
To read "The Scrap yard" click HERE
To read the prologue of José Monleón click HERE
“The career of Alfonso Vallejo could well be a perfect example of harshness and disdane of our society. Besides writing plays, he writes in his own manner, with imagination and freedom, instead of meeting the demands of the marketplace and then giving them the menu that was requested.” p. 7
“An isolated author, alien to literary circles, without contact with the people of the theatre, a stranger to any sentiment of group belonging or generation....”p. 7
“Our Alfonso Vallejo has not benefited from any conjuncture. In those works I am familiar with, there certainly is an examination and feeling of reality which contains an evaluation impregnated with socio-political connotation, an inevitable criticism, and in political terms his most serious value.” p.11
“.. Vallejo’s plays have a distinctive poetry. Here, the character is not a pretext, nor a psychological entity ‘naturally’ integrated in the story line. On the contrary, the character is the centre, the scene, the poet and the heart of the story; the character whether real or invented, makes the imagined become a substantial part of reality.” p.11
“The way things are, after 18 years of work, the achievements, are still, an adventure. And adult undertaking that clashes with the infantile culture of this ambiguous times, with shadows of freedom, a millstone of authority and ignorance, which, cheers us in some respects but costs us, in most cases, a lot to over come.” p.15
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· El teatro de Alfonso Vallejo durante la transición política española (1975-1982): reforma y vanguardia. Revista Extramuros. p 175-194. Autor: José Leonardo Ontiveros G.
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· La mort dans trois pièces d’Alfonso Vallejo : Ácido sulfúrico, A tumba abierta et El cero transparente. Author: Joana Rodrigues Da Mota.
To read "La mort dans trois pièces d’Alfonso Vallejo" click HERE
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· Article: Tres manisfestaciones... Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos 363 Sep 1980 p 604-614. Author: Sabas Martín.
To read "Tres manisfestaciones... Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos" click HERE
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· Article: El otro lado de la palabra: Alfonso Vallejo y El cero transparente. Author: Alfonso J. García Osuna.
To read "El otro lado de la palabra: Alfonso Vallejo y El cero transparente" click HERE
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A monologue for six voices without sound, Infratonos, An open tomb. Fundamentos Publishers (1979) Prologue. Miguel Bilbatúa.
To read "A monologue for six voices without sound" click HERE
To read "Infratonos" click HERE
To read "An open tomb" click HERE
To read the prologue of Miguel Bilbatúa click HERE
“The attitude of Alfonso Vallejo has a lot in common with that of Francisco Nieva. I say attitude and not his poetry or his dramatical investigation. A similar attitude in that both have decided to write plays at the margin of what is considered good for the time and without making allowances for traditional commercial theatre.” p 8
“It does not solely deal with the disintegration of the individual person in a hostile society to develop their personality; but it also deals with a society that is cracked morally and physically.” p.11
“Once again looking for heaven, which is threatened by the powerful who only purse destruction, and death. A flight but for the cornered hope.” p13
“What this shows us, and it is not little, is that we are in front of a real creator.” P13
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Wall Crabs, Latidos, Eclipse. De la Torre Publishers (1980) Prologue Enrique Llovet
To read "Wall Crabs" click HERE
To read the prologue of Enrique Llovet click HERE
“I would say that Alfonso Vallejo is a tragedy poet of our time and only for this his plays are often a chromatic phantasmagoria to sink with talent and in the very flesh of being human.” p 11.
“And it is precisely this that invokes a condition of “author” and it is the first thing to say about Alfonso Vallejo.” p 12
“In Alfonso Vallejo we have an extraordinary drama author.” p 12.
“What happens is that ‘reality’ is what interests Vallejo. It is not an anthology of materialism but that it is the singular layer in which this reality is started and ends up containing troubling unrealities. The capacity to dream, the appetite to surprise, the beginning of unsatisfied man, probably, this intuition about man and many unachieved opportunities. Plays of a writer with great creativity.” P. 13.
“In effect, the plays of Alfonso Vallejo are clear, penetrating, investigative, lucid, imaginative and poetic.” p. 14
“Perhaps, it is for this poetic condition that the writings of Vallejo seems to me, and more, vital for the health of our drama. Nearly all our ills come from the general lack of awareness of the new code for plays and its forms. Alfonso Vallejo, adding to these the colour and the tension of his poetic creativity is the author of our time most qualified to express the brave armour of realism and final establish a clear, clean and efficient code of communications. Nothing less.” p 15
“The expressive force of Vallejo’s plays means the capacity to fulfill an essential feature of plays: reach the audience.” p.15
“Perhaps it is because he is an author with the gift of poetry and a possession of a strong and useful sense of humour which Alfonso Vallejo transmits and is immediately understood. The dynamic imperatives of his text, with its conflicting demands, its need for movement, crisis, reactions, novelties, changes and, finally, the interactions of the characters. With the needs of concrete times and in a determined form, its arguments, themes, its actions and its intriguing paths, so well put together, that they constitute the essential mechanical background that establish the dramatic plays of Vallejo. Without his essential vitality of his creative liberty he would not have been able to achieve it. Without his primary vitality of his sense of humour and poetry he could not have written a play. Without the energies of these generic motors of resources of all these works could not also be understood.” p.17
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Monkeys, Underground seagulls. Fundamentos Publishers (1985). Prologue Ángel Fernández Santos.
To read "Underground seagulls" click HERE
To read the prologue of Ángel Fernández Santos click HERE
“He is an island author, his passion for the scene is so clear, that it seems that he has found his natural calling outside the usual circuit of the theatre business in Spain. And this distinct condition does not only affect his professionalism, but also the nature of his writing with a profound style. This island author is from an island theatre, and reading his books become complicated due to this isolation, consequently few of the useful rules used to frame plays written in Spain today are helpful.” p 8
“I don’t know how to announce in any other way the difference of the style of these drama works. Alfonso Vallejo seems to have entered and grew in the theatre through accesses and drawbridges which between us we know little or badly explored. I am speaking formally, so important is this subject. This converts these writings, in the middle of the low hill of our theatre literature where lives a tree with a strange and solitary trunk from where he explores the interior of scenes that appear in Spain to be unedited. Because these are from antecedents, also because they are different from the usual ones here. And also because these antecedents are diluted so finely in the energies of the playwright that they delete the fingerprints that are left on his or her back and convert into wounds themselves.” p 8.
“And I say it again, the impression is that it is difficult to read the plays of Alfonso Vallejo. They are so real, so austere in there verbal and literary coverage, so separate from the models that are in fashion that they may be considered old, that only by imagining them it is possible to read them without the reader straying in their intricacies. Intricacies that are in essence in the form of a myth, which is to say, theatrical per excellence that is tragedy”p.8
“This mythical ritual and tragedy of the writer Alfonso Vallejo comes from his drama that is constructed, on the whole, during poetic time which can only be totally captured in a skin and in human behaviour, that is to say, an actor. The plays of Alfonso Vallejo are a few of those today in Spain who aim at purity and the cheers they represent. Sometimes, it is for this they represent little. p.9
“Alfonso Vallejo is probably a victim, and this in my judgement is his first originality, except that this sort of victimhood does not abound in Spain, of the conflict of what is new in a medium that is dominated by conservatism. This old conflict has in the theatre, a curious inclination of creating a paradox, that the real innovators rarely suggest new things. On the contrary, they innovate by means of violent regression to create expression already sanctioned and approved of in the past and sometimes even back into history, nearly archaic, and find in these jumps backwards the essential key to separate from the present, a distinction of modernity.” p.9
“....Alfonso Vallejo, regarding these limit situations, goes beyond Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Gabriel Marcel or any other historical smiths of the formula.” p.10
“With a push and tragic ambition, innovative and synthetic, in search of a way to dynamically and open future historical crystallisations already fixed, the plays of Alfonso Vallejo can, through these co-ordinations, stylistically, at least to position ourselves over his profound origin, in these strange points that the traditions of natural realism coincide, in an ephemeral miracle, with their bets on expressionism, that takes it precisely to its summit, and this way one can understand better my insistence in the value of his name, the quoted August Strindberg.” p 10
“Alfonso Vallejo combines, with rare ease and persistence, the precision of his dialogues with a pronounced ambivalence of the attitudes of the characters. As if playing with the two faces of a coin, duplicating with sagacity the function of myth in a kind of play that tries to overcome the romantic tragedy: making legend about the immediate realism and the immediacy of the legendary resonances.”
“His play gravitate on universal human behaviour and habits. But in this macro exterior, and nearly documented sprouts an exception in the form of a breakaway species: something must break the fine line of the continuity of time. Its characters move on some sort of wounded rationality, but from these open cracks escapes a literature with the same face of its rationality.” P.12
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· Teatro Spagnolo Contemporaneo Edizioni dell´Orso, volume secondo. Italia. Prólogo: Emilio Coco
«Ho cominciato a scrivere teatro nel 1960. Ho fatto tutto quello che ho potuto per rappresentarlo, ma invano. Suppongo che siano intervenuti altri fattori. D’altra parte, l’impossibilità di accedere al palcoscenico in Spagna durante il periodo franchista era la conferma della regola piuttosto che la sua eccezione. Era un male endemico e, naturalmente, io non ne fui esente. Bisogna anche tener conto del fatto che un autore necessita di un lungo addestramento prima di arrivare a produrre un’opera teatralmente sostenibile e difendibile. È molto possibile che nessuna di quelle tredici opere meritasse di arrivare ai teatri commerciali. Ma è ugualmente possibile che quel materiale avesse meritato l’accesso a un altro tipo di palcoscenico più sperimentale: nemmeno quello mi fu consentito. Perciò, vedendo che l’età mi stava cominciando a pesare e che il panorama avrebbe potuto ripetersi senza cambiamenti nei successivi decenni, decisi di provare fuori. Mi feci tradurre. Il tempo ha dimostrato che non mi ero sbagliato». In queste parole di Alfonso Vallejo è condensata tutta la storia del lungo calvario che ha dovuto sopportare il nostro autore prima di essere riconosciuto in patria come uno dei più validi esponenti del teatro contemporaneo.
Nato a Santander nel 1943, comincia a scrivere all’età di quattordici anni: poesia, brevi saggi, racconti. «Anche se la mia vocazione fu sempre quella di scrivere, cominciai gli studi di medicina non solo per avere una visione più precisa del lato fisico della personalità umana, ma anche per mantenere un’indipendenza economica che mi permettesse di essere uno scrittore indipendente». Tra il 1960 e il 1973, Vallejo scrive tredici opere di teatro che non riconosce più come proprie. La sua prima rappresentazione teatrale ha luogo nel 1962, nell’Istituto francese di Madrid, con Cycle, scritta in francese e interpretata da attori francesi.
A partire dal 73, decide di tradurre i suoi testi in inglese e tedesco e di farli conoscere all’estero. Nel 76, Fly-By viene scelta dall’Orange Tree Theatre di Londra per una serie di letture drammatizzate. Intanto arrivano anche dalla Spagna i primi riconoscimenti. Con Ácido sulfúrico è finalista del premio Lope de Vega, che vincerà l’anno seguente (1997) con El desgüace. Nel 78 vince il premio Tirso de Molina con A tumba abierta e nell’81 la Reale Accademia assegna alla sua opera El cero transparente il prestigioso premio Fastenrath. In un’appassionata introduzione a una raccolta di tre suoi testi, dal titolo significativo «Alfonso Vallejo, tutto meno che essere rappresentato in Spagna», José Monleón denuncia la situazione paradossale di un autore che, nonostante abbia ricevuto i più importanti premi teatrali, nonostante sia stato pubblicato e rappresentato all’estero, e goda della stima di persone qualificate nel campo del teatro, non ha visto una sola delle sue opere arrivare sui palcoscenici del proprio paese. «Tutto questo —è l’amara constatazione del critico— costituisce una contraddizione che solo a una realtà come la nostra può tornare utile».
A partire dagli anni 80, quando già il suo teatro aveva entusiasmato le platee e i critici di New York e di Londra, Vallejo cessa di essere un’anomalia nella scena spagnola, anche se a tutt’oggi di molti dei suoi testi si ha notizia solo entrando nelle librerie. Egli si considera «un indipendente a livello personale, sociale e professionale. Credo che l’indipendenza sia una delle grandi opzioni, ciò che ti permette il libero arbitrio, di stare dove credi che stia la giustizia e la verità, e siccome l’una e l’altra sono mobili, puoi scegliere senza inquadrarti in un discorso ideologico socialmente costituito». Egli non si ritiene vincolato a nessun gruppo artistico o letterario. Né sembra essere troppo preoccupato della sua condizione di «emarginato», di essere un «autore-isola» come l’hanno definito un po’ tutti i manuali di teatro spagnolo contemporaneo. Sa bene di non essere «di moda», perché il suo teatro non è facile, anche se non è un teatro per pochi. Né è possibile individuarvi una tendenza dominante perché «ogni opera comporta per me una nuova sfida e ognuna di esse mi permette una stupenda investigazione di quella meraviglia viva che si chiama uomo». E continua: «L’estetica di un’opera in sé e per sé non ha alcun senso se non è carica di significato. E al contrario: quando qualcosa ha significato, l’estetica non fa altro che servire da veicolo per trasmetterlo. Se io pensassi per un istante che il mio lavoro riflette solo una situazione particolare, di uomini di un momento, che non potrebbero vivere se non in un luogo concreto e unico, allora smetterei di scrivere». «La mia opera —ribadirà qualche anno dopo a Diario 16— ha a che vedere semplicemente con l’essere umano, con la difesa della vita, perché il mio obiettivo nel teatro è mostrare le ombre per far sì che attraverso di esse spunti la scintilla, il raggio di luce che è la speranza nell’azione, nel progresso, per uscire dall’ignoranza, dall’ingiustizia, dalla trivialità, e arrivare così a migliorare l’uomo. È questo anche l’obiettivo della mia poesia. Sì, perché Vallejo, oltre che drammaturgo, è anche poeta, pittore e docente di patologia medica all’università di Madrid. E come era già avvenuto con Cechov, il medico si allea con lo scrittore per indagare sulla complessa personalità degli uomini, affondandovi il suo bisturi crudele. La professione di medico neurologo ha influito notevolmente sull’indirizzo del suo teatro: «Occuparsi di come funziona la retina o il lobo frontale non differisce molto dall’occuparsi dell’ira o della lussuria o delle passioni che dirige lo stesso lobo frontale. Noi siamo uno diviso in molti concetti, definiti da appellativi. Provare a diagnosticare i mali che riguardano la mente e il corpo dell’uomo è un identico esercizio intellettuale. Sono interessato tanto all’ipofisi quanto agli ormoni che produce… così come alle passioni che genera».
Nel 1980, con la messinscena di El cero transparente (l’opera era già stata rappresentata a Londra col titolo di Zero line) realizzata dal Teatro Estable Castellano, nel Círculo de Bellas Artes di Madrid, Alfonso Vallejo si converte in una delle più grandi rivelazioni teatrali del momento. «L’autore del nostro tempo», come lo saluta Enrique Llovet, «il più qualificato per far saltare la granitica corazza del realismo e stabilire, finalmente, un codice di comunicazione chiaro, limpido ed efficiente». Quattro persone, tre uomini e una donna, fuggite da un ospedale psichiatrico, salgono su un treno diretto a Kiu, un luogo mitico, dove potranno finalmente riposarsi ed essere davvero se stessi. Tutti hanno alle spalle sogni deliranti e vite devastate: Holmes è stato rinchiuso per aver protestato contro il governo in seguito alla morte del figlio picchiato selvaggiamente dalla polizia; Foster, nell’illusione di alleviare il dolore umano, ha praticato l’eutanasia a tre malati terminali; Simon è stato internato per aver denunciato la corruzione del potere, mentre l’infermità di Carol è dovuta alla sua credenza assoluta nell’amore. Tutti e quattro i viaggiatori intessono relazioni violente e tenerissime, comunque sempre sincere. Ad essi si contrappongono i conduttori del treno, due funzionari e un medico, presunti paladini di una razionalità fragilissima, ancora più violenti e incapaci di comprendere. Lo scontro tra contrapposte violenze può solo condurre il treno simbolico verso la distruzione. Nella penultima scena, il vigilante rivela ai viaggiatori che la loro vera destinazione è il carcere-manicomio di Kiu. Questa scoperta fa crollare in tutti le speranze iniziali di potersi appropriare della vita ed essere felici. Foster decide di suicidarsi, Holmes cerca di scappare ma muore saltando dal finestrino. Quando alla fine del dramma il treno deraglierà, solo i due innamorati, Carol e Simon, sopravviveranno al disastro.
Se El cero transparente è l’opera con cui Vallejo ha ottenuto maggiori consensi di critica e di pubblico, dandogli fama oltre i confini del proprio paese (è stata rappresentata anche in Italia, al teatro della Quattordicesima di Milano, nel maggio del 92, per la regia di Carlos Martín), è comunque Gaviotas subterráneas, che qui si propone al lettore italiano, la sua pièce più rappresentata: tre volte a Madrid (1989, 1993, 1994), e poi a Elche (1987), a Saragozza (1988), a San Sebastián (1989), a Huelva (1992), a Siviglia (2000) e, fuori della Spagna, a Norimberga (1989). Costruita secondo la tecnica del genere poliziesco, l’opera esplora il mondo delle relazioni umane, dotando i suoi due personaggi di una grande complessità psicologica. È la storia di un incontro, apparentemente casuale, di due amici che non si rivedevano dal tempo delle loro scapestrataggini giovanili. Tutti e due sono dei falliti. Nino, il più forte e ambizioso, che ha sfruttato nella sua pubertà l’innocente e romantico Mario, figlio del preside della scuola che frequentavano insieme, lavora adesso in un’agenzia di assicurazioni, ma ha perduto tutto al gioco ed è stato tradito e abbandonato dalla moglie. Mario, che ha visto crollare i suoi sogni in seguito alla rottura della mano in un incidente provocato dall’amico in stato di ubriachezza, è condannato per sempre a suonare il violino in uno squallido caffeuccio per guadagnarsi da vivere. Nino propone a Mario di aiutarlo a simulare la propria morte, approfittando dell’agonia di un vagabondo che gli rassomiglia enormemente. La sottrazione del cadavere, la macchina fatta precipitare lungo la scarpata, il corpo carbonizzato: tutto è stato preparato con cura per poter intascare il premio di ottocento milioni dell’assicurazione, che permetterà ad entrambi di costruirsi una vita migliore. L’incontro-scontro dei due amici, che provoca impulsi irrefrenabili e contenute emozioni, si converte in un conflitto di caratteri antitetici legati da comuni storie di rancori e incomprensioni ma anche da momenti felici e spensierati della loro infanzia e giovinezza. Esso servirà a saldare vecchi debiti ma soprattutto a rafforzare il loro legame d’amicizia. Tra i meriti dell’opera, Enrique Centeno rileva «la salda scrittura, la perfetta struttura e l’enorme teatralità».
Alfonso Vallejo ha scritto le seguenti altre opere di teatro: Latidos (1975), Monólogo para seis voces sin sonido (1976), Eclipse (1977), Infratonos (1978), Cangrejos de pared (1979), Sol ulcerado (1983), Hölderlin (1984), Monkeys (1985), Orquídeas y panteras (1985), Espacio interior (1987), Week-end (1987), La espalda del círculo (1988), Tobi-después (1991), Crujidos (1997), Tuatú (1997).
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Slaughter (Latidos) The Scene, nº 4. New York, 1977.
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An open tomb. Translated into Bulgarian, Stephan Tanev. Antology of Contemporary Authors. Sofía (Bulgaria).
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Interior Space, Week-end. Publisher Fundamentos (1987). Prologue: Enrique Llovet
To read "Interior Space" click HERE
To read the prologue of Enrique Llovet click HERE
“Alfonso Vallejo is at the highest and importance that can possibly be reached on the ladder of drama: a poet with a tragic context. A contemporary poet.” p.7
“I have been following Vallejo with great affection for some time now and especially these ten years when he popularised the pseudonym which goes back to Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina. In two unforgettable years, there was the first production of The “Train to Kiu,” in front of an amazed, fascinated and shocked audience with the public presence of a man who is passionate about the society he lives in. With passion he defends liberty and with passion guards the consequences of being free and social. Vallejo does this with his own shuffle and the jokers are the tension of poetry, the pondered tremor of realistic miserly and the very personal system of communication which the great author uses to show us his discoveries.”p.7
"Feeling for the theatre, feeling for synthesis, feeling for expression, feeling for the picture, poetic capacity, sense of humour, assessment of the situation. Medical doctor, poet, playwright, humorist, painter. Alfonso Vallejo sometimes does not seem from this age. Sometimes he appears as a humorist escaping from silence and meditation to voluntarily participate in the education of social and human problems." p 8
"The only thing missing for Vallejo is the Nobel prize. The day they will give it to him the whole world, except his country, will divinely know his work. Up to here, everything is clear, society will die with fear before the theatrical medicine which Alfonso Vallejo want to administer." p8
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An Open Tomb. Bookshop Antonio Machado (1988).
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Fly-By. Ulcer Sun. Publishers la Avispa. Número 21. (1986)
To read "Ulcer Sun" click HERE
To read the prologue of Alfonso Vallejo click HERE
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Orquídeas y Panteras. Editorial Preyson. (1985)
To read "Orquídeas y Panteras" click HERE
To read the prologue of Alfonso vallejo click HERE
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The sward of the circle. University of Murcia (1988)
To read "The sward of the circle" click HERE
To read the prologue of Alfonso Vallejo click HERE
To read the book of Ramona Hahn click HERE
Prologue of Alfonso Vallejo
The author chooses the work, but also the work chooses the author. Many become angry with this ambiguous and cryptic relationship. A playwright does not consider a theme by purely reflecting on developing it by means of some characters. On the contrary his or her work has something of the irrational in it. It unfolds in a world without a bottom nor frontiers, uncontrollable and unforeseen at the same time, a world not subject to rules and compromises, where laws make themselves, sometimes determined by the very contradiction that human nature creates: the world of passions." p7
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The Transparant Zero. Dialogue n.6 (1987) Translated into Polish by Ursula Aszyk.
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Hölderlin First Act n. 205
To read "Hölderlin" click HERE
"Alfonso Vallejo is a special case within the so called genre of "new authors." What he has written does not belong to any theatre school and it is also impossible to include it within the same group as his peers of the same generation. In his work there is a specific poetry and in some there is a clear aspect which is political in nature. Understanding this full concept, the situations he narrates and the characters that swarm his texts will easily transcend any historical background to make his problems about conflict to affect any person in any situation. And so, his career as a playwright tries to escape the restrictions imposed by the tastes of the public to deepen the torn character of contemporary man. This has made him stay away from the world of the theatre to concentrate on his meticulous work sometimes rewriting a play up to ten times." p.74 Signed P.A.
At long last an end to the paradox and, ignored in his country, he receives laudatory praise in New York and London where he premiered his work before Madrid." p. 74 Signed P.A.
"Once again, the presence of an affectionate personage in a universe where fiction and reality constantly crisscross. Dreams, obsession, deliriums. In our times, man is crossed by the phantoms that his imagination forges." p.74
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Tobi-After Theatrical Art n.3 (1991)
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Train to Kiu (El cero Transparente) Premiered, Contemporary Spanish Play (1995). Translation by Rick Hite
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Cracked. Tuatú. Fundamentos Publishers (1996) Prologue :Ursula Aszwyck.
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Book Cover: Cracked: Oil painting by Alfonso Vallejo. Mixed Technique. 110 cm x 80 cm. Title: "Cracked"
To read the prologue of Ursula Aszwyck click HERE
The strength of this play is in its poetic aspect, the capacity to synthesise and expression of the imagination. In Vallejo, as in Shakespeare and Lope de Vega, the poetry reaches the visual and sonorous, the flexible element and the word." p.12
"The plays of Alfonso Vallejo, obviously made to be represented, start to live in the space of the scene because these are basically plays written for actors. Alfonso Vallejo is to be understood as "the only way to write plays." Put on stage, his works also oblige the spectator to cooperate in their interpretation. The reality it evokes, quite realistic, is realistic to the reality of the scene, but also leaves it to evolve with the action. Little by little, the attitudes of the characters and the dialogues become ambiguous. It is evident that the characters are subjected to a complex game, even if this is called life. And this is one sign of the talents of Alfonso Vallejo who shows an extraordinary imagination of a man of the theatre. When the curtain finally comes down, and everyone returns to the previous order, and when the stage game comes to an end and life continues, the spectator is faced with a task that is not very easy: they have to conclude the play, close the drama in their own way and become actively intelligent." p.13
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Tuatú Fundamentos Publishers (1996). Prologue: Ursula Aszwyck
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Kora Antonio Machado Library (1998)
Prologue Alfonso Vallejo
To read the prologue of Alfonso Vallejo click HERE
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Jindama. Alhulia pubishers, 1998. Prologue: César Oliva.
To read the prologue of César Oliva click HERE
"Alfonso Vallejo is a surprising stage biography in the surprising fin-de-siècle plays. Distant from everything and from every contemporary movement, he has always written works that he felt doing, in a show of singularly creative anarchy." p.9
"Jindama is an intuition, like everything else Alfonso Vallejo touches. But it is also the title of a comedy which, at the same time pretends to try the actors-characters. That is to say to subscribe to the known genre of plays inside plays, but we would fall short. He would like to invent his genre, but this is equivalent to saying the distraction of the genres or theatre itself. The author says, "I wanted to synthesise genres. I love richness, life, truth, surprise. The multi-talented. The mixture of tendencies. The multi-voice."" p 10
"The work is a nightmare, where the theme of fiction/reality arrives immediately after the discussion of the character of his or her character-interpretation, protecting themselves from the rival topics and real life."p.11
"And here is our author, obsessed with his voyage to nowhere, who inhabits impossible houses, that writes works without solution." p.12
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· Realidades imbricadas. Author: John Gabriele
To read "Realidades imbricadas" click HERE
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Nerón Ebola. E.S.A.D de Murcia Publishers (1999) Prologue: María Francisca Vilches de Fruto
To read "Nerón Ebola" click HERE
To read the prologue María Francisca Vilches de Frutos click HERE
"Alfonso Vallejo is a versatile man in such aspects as neurologist, playwright, poet and painter, returns to the world of theatre with a succinct title but very suggestive: Ebola-Nerón. This is not the first time that this happened with apparent irreconcilable terms." p.7
"It reveals the coherence of an original creative universe sustained with the conviction that only the theatre allows humans to dive into a reality so complex that its comprehension is only possible with the transgression of its limits, in its contradictions. Plays "are a system to explore reality," as he did for nearly twenty years and confirmed in an interview with the El País on the premier of his play The Transparent Zero." (Train to Kiu) p .7
"The plays of Alfonso Vallejo ooze with contemporaneity. His themes can be presented as paradigms of the worries of being human today. He is an author that gives life a start with his aesthetic discourse, as witness of the heart wrenching force of the leitmotif that furrows one or the other of his creations. The relationships of powers in the breast of society. Founded in the progressive destruction of the independence and liberty of the individual, through their main structures. The family, the political regimes, the health system, the army, the artistic world, relationships with neighbours or friends." p.7
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· Reseña de Ángel González Quesada en las Puertas del Drama. AAT, Primavera 2002
To read the article click HERE
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Panic. Avispa Publishers. Prologue: Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo (2001)
To read the prologue of Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo click HERE
" Alfonso Vallejo, who is redefining the dramatic phenomenon every time in his works, represents in Panic something that is more than a play and brings to a head an investigation not only in the mystery of the stage representation, but not least in the mysterious show of life and reality. Plays done by Alfonso Vallejo reject, in principle, all the recipes, all the formulae, all the methods, and when the play finishes, one discovers that "the journey without apparent destination," as Baroja says, is closed from the beginning, in a plan. In this way it is manifestly put with a result that is minuscule anarchy, a chaos of high precision."
"Another time when the sprit of destruction, destruction-constructive, power emerges. Another time the playwright introduces the challenge of disequilibrium, to work his fingers to the bone, no doubt determined by his predatory instinct as an artist. This allows him to carry out a constant exploration on being a human and to investigate the latest manifestations of his or her consciousness. The latest, in the sense of the most profound and in the sense of the most up to date, because the theatre is the show of the "here and now." theatre is always an ephemeral time and brutal immediacy. It is a communion between the actors and spectators at the time of representation. For this reason the theatre is something unique and distinct in every session, in the same way that a bull fight is unique and distinct every evening. And it also has something sacred, magical, but also fleeting, dynamic and combatant, equal to is own reality. The reality of the theatre, the truth, in every show, and for this reason, it is a different show today from tomorrow and tomorrow from the day after tomorrow.”
"In this presentation of reality, Alfonso Vallejo opted for open show, polyhedral, changing, multi-genre, with a mix of style and tastes, always mobile, but always with an internal unity, -a dislocated unity- that sustains this diverse of voices and this multiplicity of a conscious state of being. This does not deal with a unity that is sequential normal and current, but a unity apparently disarticulated, that manifests itself sometimes with a constant change of rhythm and other times with sustained silence. In this way he enters the territory of adventure, of challenges, the senses, the flesh and the imagination. The terms and concepts of this investigation and exploration are key for us to enter this world of the stage. This is about a psychological investigation that serves to enter the world of the neuro-psychological and this, at the same time, to arrive at the neuro-philosophical, that is to say everything that there is to see with mobility, bipedal, and all the way of movement, the actions, plasticity, the sense of equilibrium, vertigo. It deals with functions that the author analyses every day in his clinic and which constitute essential parts of his plays, all plays. However, it is more, we do not find ourselves in front of a psychological and philosophical exploration but also an exploration of personal conduct, an investigation of the various forms of being and behaviour, adopted by women and men. These behaviours can modify themselves, destroy themselves, fragment themselves, recompose themselves, and every thing that this play contains. A behaviour, that awakens and reveals with psychological realism, and above all else, a theatrical realism. Behaviour that acquires its dimension from symptoms and symbols from each of us because they adhere to reality and because they themselves acquire a theatrical validity."
"But in Panic, as in all other plays by Vallejo, we do not experience an investigation in behaviour, but also in a situational exploration. A representation of different behaviour that is joined in a certain moment and produce a unique situation of a mixture of force, a combination of tensions that there is an external equilibrium, that there is to investigate. We also find ourselves in front of an investigation about states, about levels of consciousness, that go from delirium to alertness, from vigilance to the deep coma, that explores, as in Panic, "the states of the twilight zone and confused dreams, visual distortions, alterations in the depths of the visual field and perception of one's self, of reality and the past, distortion, which add up to subjectivity and private."
"We are, however, seeing something that we do not know whether it is like it is or it is not, but it is better be like this. We are also present to an idea and a return to the great themes and the great masters of plays, of Alfonso Vallejo, that are reality, life, imagination, lived reality that is invented, represented and imagined."
"The action in the plays by Vallejo are not only determined by the mobile and dynamic setting in which they develop, such as on board ships, train compartments, or metro carriages, and in the scenes that are very fragile and slippery in the zones of consciousness, also for the same concept of reality it represents where everything is little stable and permanent.
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· Reseña de Ángel González Quesada en las Puertas del Drama. AAT, Primavera 2002
To read the article click HERE
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· Para una lectura del teatro actual – Estudio de PANIC de Alfonso Vallejo. 01 ed. Vitória (Br) Academia Espírito-santense de Letras, 2009, p. 188. Author: OLIVEIRA, Ester A. V. de.
To read "PARA UNA LECTURA DEL TEATRO ACTUAL: Estudio de PANIC de Alfonso Vallejo" click HERE
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· Panic. Author: Alfonso Vallejo. Tradução de Ester Abreu Vieira de Oliveira. Revisão de Maria Mirtis Caser
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· Panic: confluencias vitales de la memoria. Author: John Gabriele
To read "Panic: confluencias vitales de la memoria" click HERE
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· Memory, Trauma, and the Postmodern Self in Alfonso Vallejo's Panic. Author: John Gabriele
To read "Memory, Trauma, and the Postmodern Self in Alfonso Vallejo's Panic" click HERE
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· Article: A esencia del ser humano en PANIC desde una visión posmoderna. In: XV Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanista, 2007 – Monterrey. Actas del XV Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanista. Monterrey: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2007, p. 39-50. Autor: OLIVEIRA, Ester A. V. de.
To read "Artículo: XV Congreso de Monterrey - México" click HERE
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· Article: Vallejo autor entre fronteiras – na terra de ninguém e de todos, Contexto, Vitória (Br), p. 1-14, 2004. Author: OLIVEIRA, Ester A. V. de.
To read "Vallejo: autor entre fronteiras – na terra de ninguém e de todos" click HERE
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· Article: Lo trágico del ser humano en PANICO, 2003 (Monografía- UNED- Madrid). Author: OLIVEIRA, Ester A. V. de.
To read "Lo trágico del ser humano en PANICO" click HERE
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· Article: O cômico, o trágico e a tragicomédia: recursos utilizados por Cervantes e Alfonso Vallejo. 2008 (presentación de trabajo/comunicación en congreso – está en el prelo de la Revista Contexto para salir en 2010/1). OLIVEIRA, Ester A. V. de.
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Greta in the Confession Edit: AAT/Teatro. (2001)
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THE IMMOLATION. In Marathon of Monologues. Edit:AAT/Teatro (2002)
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JASMIN. In Marathon of Monologues (2003) Edit: AAT/Teatro
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SORAYA. In Marathon of Monologues. 2004. Edit: AAT/Teatro
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IRSTEL. In Marathon of Monologues. 2005. Edit: AAT/Teatro
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HIROSHIMA-SEVILLA. 6A. A.A.T Publishers (2003). Prologue: Enrique LLovet.
To read "HIROSHIMA-SEVILLA.6A" click HERE
To read the prologue of Enrique LLovet click HERE
"....Vallejo is in the big list of playwrights." p. 7
"Vallejo is a fascinating analyst of disintegration." p.7
"Vallejo is a great writer. What is important in shows, the music, dance, paintings or the most famous variations of body dances, it is the word; the dramatic word born between epic words and lyrics. Which makes up the scenery of drama itself. Above all else, there is someone who is interested in Shakespeare, or Moliere or Calderón or Vallejo."p.7
"Realism, humour, imagination, fantasy. Luxuries of an author to achieve an image of human existence. More logical than a pure image. So theatrical as all great plays. So literary as all literature. And what form does this take? Alfonso Vallejo manages to achieve this thanks to his great system of creating characters. I have also commented regularly on the theme of character in plays. Or rather the "Grand theatre."" p.9
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Catacombs. Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. Prologue Mar Rebollo Calzada.
To read "Catacombs" click HERE
To read the prologue of Mar Rebollo Calzada click HERE
"Vanguardist, defiant, and complex, Alfonso Vallejo surprises us all at the dawn of the 21st century with a renewed neurological drama. Independent of current tendencies and trends, he has unfolded a unique work that has been late to crystallise in Spanish theatre. He has already been recognised as a heavy weight Spanish author. His first play that was represented professionally was Eclipse (1977), at the Open Space Theatre, New York, on the 7 June 1979 and directed by Nancy Gabor. And in the same year Fly-By (1973) and Train to Kiu (1977) at the Orange Tree Theatre in London, on the 21 September 1979 and directed by Julia Pascal. Another memorable play was Monologue for six voices without sound (1976) premiered at St. Clement’ s Theatre, New York, on the 2 June 1983 and directed by Jordan Dietcher.” p 8
"The fact that at this stage of Spanish transition, one scarcely sees Vallejo's works represented in our theatres, despite the efforts of the author, shows how hard and solitary the Spanish task has been. By contrast, his plays have been represented in theatres in London, New York, Caracas, Miami, Nuremberg, Milan, Warsaw to cite only a few.” p. 8
"Catacombs unites some of the Vallejian themes that happen closer to being human in limited situation with the aim of dissection these situations in the theatre laboratory. This way the human mind, fantasy, delirium, hallucination, humour, brutal neurosis are analysed through characters until they touch the bottom. Situations that are not reproducible because of the disequilibrium that enters in the forces of tension that imposes itself as vital salvation for man and the actor that represents it." p.10
The innovation of the play Catacombs is its making. Alfonso Vallejo has discovered the possibility of a new drama style starting from the concept of inter-textuality, considered from the functional perspective when constructing a play." p.10
"For this reason we can confirm that Catacomb heralds a new form of play writing which we can call welding inter-textual collage." p.10
"This is intensive play writing that does not have the capacity of applying the formulae of playwrights to it." p.20
"You don't see evidence of past Spanish plays in Vallejo, however, his plays are hundred per cent Spanish." p.20
"There could have been many more "Catacombs." This has been only one possibility of many, a challenge more than has marked the artist. Without any doubt, all the imaginable "Catacombs" have been selected to serve as instruments to share the essence of being human and all have defended the extremes of LIFE." p.20
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· Artícle: Katacumbia de Alfonso Vallejo. Author: Aníbal Lozano.
To read "Artícle: Katacumbia de Alfonso Vallejo" click HERE
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· Article: Katacumbia de Alfonso Vallejo. Author: Magda Ruggeri.
To read "Article: Katacumbia de Alfonso Vallejo" click HERE
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Contemporary theatre: Alfonso Vallejo. Publisher: UNED Editions. Author: Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo. (2001). Madrid.
To read "Teatro contemporáneo: Alfonso Vallejo" click HERE
"Alfonso Vallejo is a radical contemporary playwright, and so, he orders, goes to extreme, deforms, and transforms the signs of external reality to the time it reveals and probes the interior of being human, the inner reality, forming with both the same nightmare. The exterior and the intimate, the tangible and the imaginable, the gossip and the visionary, that melt and confuse into a coherent discourse that is cemented into an aesthetics of transgression." (Martín, 1985:154-155) p. 18
"This contradictory manifestation of things determines, in itself, the conflict of Vallejian drama. Non one shows reality in a single face, and for some the first time they are seen appear like this, the face they show sometimes implies and explains the contrary." p.19
"But Alfonso Vallejo, by profession and career, knows very well the apparent or the phenomenal such as the essential or the thing of and itself, and his scientific training magnificently gives him the ability to explore and explain the mysterious and unknown areas of reality. What some philosophers call "the hell of itself" (Baudrillard, 1991:123-123), Alfonso Vallejo constantly challenges identity with an otherness, one with the other, because he knows that with a game of opposites helps the construction that confers meaning to our lives." p.20
"Oedipus wants to know the truth, but when he manages to achieve it, he cannot stand it; he rolls up his eyes and goes into the dark of the night. The characters of Alfonso Vallejo are subjected to this very same tension, but his instinct makes them reach different decisions. They toll to searching in the light and the clarity of the night and the dark. They occupy themselves to find dissimilarities in a universe of similarities." p21
"The dramatic writings of Alfonso Vallejo so pregnant with tensions and contradictions, of antonyms and apparent <alogicidades>. How can this reveal so full a meaning without being supported above the rhythm? His writing is a highlight and a development of Aristoxenus's question that García Calvo asks: How did he create all this without being ordered to some rhythm?"(García Calvo, 1975: 15)” p. 24
"In all the cases of sharpness and the art of the genius are skilfully united in the language that reminds us of the conceptualism of Gracian and Quevedo and some of the plasticity of the presentation that can be justifiably considered rightfully inherited from the modes of expression of Goya and Picasso." p.29
"The tragic feeling of anger has a lot in common with the "noise and fury" of William Shakespeare which was beautifully put into a novel by William Faulkner. This deals with thinking and a language in continuous and permanent boiling and renovation.
"He knows, without doubt, the precedent formulae and themes of the classic authors and the resources of the avant-garde theatre schools. This is the most important point about the Vallejian plays. Tradition and renovation, classic and avant-garde, here we find some of the keys of his plays." p.30
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Arabic Translation by Khaled Salem and Ranya Rabba. Published by the University of Cario (2005) which includes the following works: Monologue for six voices without sound, Intratones, An open tomb.
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Guilty? Pssss... Prologue and Publication by Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo. DAURO Publishers. Editor José Rienda. Granada (2005)
To read the prologue of Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo click HERE
"In all these manifestations, structured over many diverse roles and focused on multiple perspectives, that converts a single character in the Spanish artistic panorama, with man always being the fundamental preoccupation.
..... Man is covered in all his dimensions: biology, cultural, anthropology and myths." p.9
"The fantasy allegory of the exercise of absolute power in Psss...and the present chronicle about violence, crime and vengeance of "Guilty?" point at the need to construct a new man, that, definitely, is the proclamation of the unwaiving faith of life." p.10
"In harmony with them, the intentionality of the work, the same as the majority of for the poetry of the author, is to try an find the new man, and for some respect patrons, amongst which in the work of Vallejo, the most important, is human solidarity." p.14
"These proceeding, with their dazzling force of poetry and its symbolic and mythical charge, are not found in any other contemporary author." p.16
"Alfonso Vallejo has undertaken all the dramatic genre and in all of them he has shown that he is an author of good breeding. In Psss... and in Guilty? he has confirmed his mastery." p.16
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· Article: Culpable¿. Pssss de Alfonso Vallejo de Alfonso Vallejo. Author: Mar Rebollo.
To read "Culpable¿. Pssss de Alfonso Vallejo" click HERE
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A New Woman. Publisher Dauro. Collection 111. Edited by José Rienda. GRANADA. 18006. C/ Poeta Zorrila ,5
ISBN-13: 978-84-96677-04-03; ISBN-10:84-96677-04-4; Depósito legal: SE-6300-2006 U.Ee.
Prologue by Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo.
To read "Un nueva mujer" click HERE
To read the prologue of Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo click HERE
"Alfonso Vallejo, always attentive to the continuous transformations that are taking place in the artistic, literary and social spheres, could not remain alien to the representation of the protagonist that in recent times has included women in all and every one of these fields. And he did this in the way he had to do it, with writing and his painting, two activities that complement in an exemplary way his scientific career and medical profession." (p.9)
"The astute look and wisdom of Vallejo has perceived the clear participation of women in contemporary art and in the framework of social forces and interpersonal relationships.
It is difficult to imagine another country as ours, that after a long dictatorship and a short time after, has experimented a transformation. In this transformation women have exercised a decisive participation and recognised and testifies as a strict exercise of justice. Vallejo has done it." (p.9)
"Vallejo, in order to dramatically represent the women of today, has chosen a brief genre. A form of grand literary tradition but which reaches its major potential in our times." (p.10)
"Vallejo has put himself once more in tune with the times and has resorted to these brief forms like electric sparks or lightning, arriving very fast to the reader and the spectator. He has thought, justifiably, that women are the best to remove these flashes which he has chosen as his protagonist for his mini dramas.
"Each woman in these works, each one in her class and condition, shows a political thinking typically illustrated, that serves as a profound correction of the old religious conception including the presumed post modern democracy." (p.11)
"If Vallejo is introducing new artistic challenges in every artistic work, fortunately always resolved, in these works he gave one more turn of the screw and has managed to present flexible concepts such as representation, identity, family, globalisation, and has a decisive addition which is women." (p.11)
"The works of Vallejo, in addition to being a source of knowledge and fruition, help us to enter reality and interpret the symbolic representations. I have already commented on other occasions that Vallejo has managed to harmonise the cognitive and emotional sensitivity spheres, that traditionally have appeared unassociated. Furthermore, we constantly remember our important role motivated by our sentiment, emotion and prevailing knowledge." (p.12)
"The various works of Vallejo and these are of a special manner, they present us with a gift for the senses, for his sensuality and carnality, and with profound political and philosophical reflections for their understanding. "In this line Alfonso Vallejo reconstructs and dismounts in his mini-dramas this notion of a subject as a self sufficient entity, autonomous and stable. Women are no longer what they used to be."
"In every one of these works Vallejo creates a new form of materialism that develops and fills the concept of materialism and corporeal. The body or the materialisation of the subject, is not conceived only as a biological and sociological category, but also as the point of convergence and the union of the physical, the sociological and the symbolic. It is not only about saying that women now are not as they were before, but to make creations that have a dramatic force and which are able to show that personal relationships have changed and that the ideas of power and the centre are not immobile." (p.13)
"The dramatic subject of Alfonso Vallejo, and in the majority of these works is women, and has in them a process of rediscovery, of illumination of hidden areas and scenic forms of present day chronicles that move the conscience of everyone. Alfonso Vallejo on the one hand presents a conscience that will bankrupt the world, and on the other hand he gives us the necessary instruments that will help us interpret and recompose this fragmented world." (p.27)
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· Artícle: Conflitos femininos em Una nueva mujer de Alfonso Vallejo, en la mesa Liteaturas Hispânicas Contemporâneas: Tradução, alteridade, identidade e gênero , en el XIV Congresso Brasileiro de Professores de Espanhol. Autor: Prof. Ester Abreu: El día 21/07/2011 en Niteroi , en la Universidade Federal Fluminense.
To read "Article: Conflitos femininos em Una nueva mujer de Alfonso Vallejo" click HERE
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· Article: Una nueva mujer . Author: Magda Ruggeri.
To read "Article: Una nueva mujer " click HERE
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The hearer of Ice. Publisher AAT (2008) Prologue by Francisco
Gutiérrez Carbajo
To read "The hearer of Ice" click HERE
To read the prologue of Francisco Gutiérrez Carbajo click HERE
- In an era when the best discourses proclaim the achievements of war campaigns or the silent and passive indifference, make works like Alfonso Vallejio's, which constitute an aesthetic manifestation, an experimental model to get to know mankind and an instrument to rearm morality.
- For Vallejo an essential radical premise where a play has to take hold, trap and interest. A play has to create emotion, integrate and to stir. Plays have to have "secrets" and have to maintain, moreover, an architecture and a rhythm which makes this connection between the reader or the audience and the text easier. In brief, this is about creating a body of concepts and developments, to fix a determined intention and to really establish a precise objective. That is to say, to offer on paper and on the table a project and an intention.
- For Vallejo the idea of a play that is instinctive, direct, physical, authentic, not manipulated, with its errors well placed is as essential one. Precisely, what is written must come from the inside that must flow from an internal and personal territory that belongs to the author.
-What is referred to as “the world of culture,” as written by Valle-Inclán in Bohemian Fights, "Spain is a grotesque deformation of European civilization." At the beginning of the twenty first century keeps the words of Valle-Inclán, according to who," the big misery of the Spanish village," is followed by the "big moral misery, the sensitivity of bad taste in front of the enigmas of life and death." Alfonso Vallejo, and other rare examples, developed his work as an exploration of this reality, as an investigation in these enigmas and always carry a spot of light and a ray of hope.
- Our playwright has been considered as an unclassifiable author, and as an island-author, and Vallejo himself interprets this title that makes him want to go on, he really likes the idea of these temptations to get him going, and he goes on as he can, bringing into play his sense of direction and resources. This is his territory: weeds, woods, testing, quick fix in the middle of disorientation, to draw the hatchet and start hacking, the "feeling." This is his principle weapon: feeling. Something irrational that continuously puts everything into play. Fantasy and injustice. Here is the issue. The potential of language stretched to the limits and the same weaknesses of the signs of language exposed, what is said and decent intention, space-time effectively conceived by Husserl and applied in Ortega.
- At the same time Vallejo moves in the world of philosophy, in the world of hospitals and in the environment of the theatre. The life that he creates, he invents it over a table, seeing the actors move and finding solutions for his conflicts in the scene. See his faces, hear his voices. And when you cannot feel it or touch it, you feel lost. But when moved by a pushing force, the author does not interrupt the process. Nothing stops him: always spying, on the road, in public places, at the cross roads, on the trail, on the path, following the way although without a compass and a map, without care for a style, without a formula, without gender. And although sometimes he does not know where he is going, he perfectly knows where he is not going. I am sure that this happens, or has happened, what Pio Baroja, in A voyage without objective: "It happened to me as the traveller who believed in taking his chances by walking in the bottom of the ravines, but when arriving at the top, he sees the path he walked and understands that, despite his diversions and turns, he had a plan." Once again we are facing the phenomenon of a play within a play, moreover, a play inside a play of the life of the actors, such as Jindama, or in historical scenes re-interpreted at the table by the actors, where they mix their life with fiction and fiction with reality, such as Ébola-Nerón. On the other hand it deals with characters that they are repeating what they are not thinking. The permanent, "Yes, but no." The being and the appearance, reality and fiction. The hidden allusion. The card games. The layabouts. The cheating and the forgetfulness. Many different plans mixed together at the same time, as in Jindama and The listener of Ice. In Jindama Lev makes clear in a scene; "there are three levels of reality...because it is a metaphor of humanity...because it is our life...because it is an interpretation of history..."
- Regarding the themes of Vallejian plays, in particular The hearer of Ice, there is one that stands out from the rest. It is the light after darkness. The possibility of action. The capacity of being the owners of our own destiny. To change reality and history. To improve our conditions. From here come all these references to "rearming international ethics," to the "discomfort of man," to the "moral anaesthesia," to the need of a critical analysis of everything that matters to us, with free discretion, for individuality and independence of the subject. As Bataille pointed out regarding the subject, for Vallejo, art is not only a reflection of subjectivity but also a way to leave it.
- The hearer of Ice is presented with a character which is militant, neutered, punching terms that can be understood very well with the good plays that Alfonso Vallejo writes. His plays are an authentic boxing fight, an opposition of contrasts, of passions, tensions, conflicts, love, eroticism, violence, tearing apart, movement.... and, above all else, of rhythm. The rhythm that creates passion. The rhythm of the scene. The rhythm of life. The rhythm of art. In our contemporary free theatre. We consider Alfonso Vallejo as important to study the rhythm in connection with science, with cosmology, with work and with aesthetic. In this meaning Karl Bücher situates in his work on the origin of rhythm in the same form as Georg Lukács includes in the foundations of his Aesthetics. Anyway, as López Estrada observes, "natural, cosmic and human rhythm and who creates the human social activity, form a network over which ensures the obscure perception of aesthetic rhythm." Regarding theatre, Alfonso Vallejo is on the same theoretical lines as Émile Jacques Delcroze, according to whom it is essential to work on the scene (stage props, interpretation...) in finding a rhythm that every action, every fact, every act and the totality that the work requires.
- This macabre ceremony, torture that is globally televised, with such a degree of sadism, with the objective to "soften" the victims, it seems so diabolic, so unusually intelligent and certain, so "modern and up to date" that makes one think. Reality is shown once more, much more surprising and full of fantasy, that the more the mind of the playwright is extravagant, the more it is atypical and transgressional. This superb scene with the most sorrowful facts mentioned above that are in Greek tragedy, in the black painting of Goya, the most cruel plays of Shakespeare or of Calderón. In other words: "what" has to be written, should be dramatised. Those that have been are to remain. As a human and literary testimony. As "a real product."
- Regarding the undertaken tasks, the theme of unjustified violence, armament, "savagery without reason," tyranny and oppression, are always found to be the basis of his thinking. On many occasions he has shown that, having elevated man to some levels of scientific, technological, artistic, and cultural development, quite extraordinary, we can now destroy the planet we live on, the marvel of the universe. We reach annihilation by applying old and antiquated procedures to a modern reality.
- Enrique Llovet points out that Vallejo manages to transmit an image of the existence of humanity, more logical than an image of logic, purer than a pure image, as theatrical as all the great theatre, all due to his great system of creating characters. Llovet compare Vallejo with Shakespeare e, Molière and Calderón and confirms that "these creators know, and Vallejo knows admirably, that the flexibility of the characters ¡s that their "behaviour" makes compromise to emerge, develop and connect." (p.11) "To transform a character into a person, continues Llovet, Vallejo creates figures charged with potential energy (...) This is what has to be done and Vallejo does it by considering the scene as a world that aspires to represent the entire universe. To disintegrate, Vallejo has to integrate first. After that he has to construct and build around the personalities a system that represents the forces that motivates us, stops us and guides us.
- This system of force that Vallejo has created around the personality constitutes a large contribution to contemporary theatre. The powerful expression of Dudley, Mortimer, María or Isabel in Mahatma depends on previous characters in his dramatic universe such as Simón, Carol, Zuckerman, Karl Jowialski, Rorfio, Bullock, Baltasar, Belorofonte, Flash, Micky, Ofelia, Kip, Lina, Tora, Tania, etc. These personalities are given a dramatical body and at the same time a flexibility of interpretation that is very difficult to find in the theatre these days.
- Vallejo has managed to get the maximum possible effect from these dramatical interaction and he has tried, luckily, to create a new profile of women in plays. The playwright knows very well that women in today's world have tried to make exponential changes, and this transformation he has included in his plays. Women, as I have written on other occasions, have in our time taken on a clear role, that manifests itself very well in the exposure and resolution of the most important problems of reality, such as the way the world treats symbolic representations. All the monologues that Alfonso Vallejo has written include women. Maria and Isabel, with their greatness and dramatic ferocity, adjust to the indicated change.
- From Shakespeare, Schiller and other writers and authors, and in a very primordial form of the author's personal experience, emerges this multitude of levels, counter dimensions, the double depth, experience and truth, silence and voices, indignation, emotion and smiles, the seduction of the actor creates "their theatrical being," doing the same in the play, creating and recreating. Every character creates the story and creates itself through their speech and also through the "commentary," when the actor says what they are thinking, but without the opposite number hearing them, even though the public hears them; a mixture of Elizabethan court with German romanticism, so large and nearly "funny," in spite of its quality. And furthermore, with an actual reference to reality, of a daily televised chronicle.
- The fundamental message of the radical work is that we have to wake up, to remember, return to our critical individuality and leave the intellectual fascism that they want to impose on us, that we have to find our own path, that we have to leave formulae and recipes and if possible the kindness.
- Vallejo has placed himself in the crisscross of currents and these eddies. Perhaps in the end, apart from these explanations, the only thing that has guided him is his theatrical instinct, the world of his personal being, pleasure of entering into new territories with uncertain meanings, but without a doubt a dramatic character.
- The signs, and the plays of a certain special form, does not mean anything until one look at what it tries to articulate. And in this look as Alberto Mira Nouselles observes nothing is innocent: they meander, like a river bed, that were formed before the result from looking at them is. The multiplicity of Alfonso Vallejo's plays replies to these to these crisscrossed looks through the event and the things from every angle and perspective. The best look to recreate the events of the past is the one that has a sharpness to observe the events of the present. The longitudinal look that Vallejo does and through reality always opens new paths. Alfonso Vallejo is writing the history of the future. Time will tell. I am sure that I am not wrong. The intuitions can generate conjectural hypothesis. But it is intuition more than logic and empirical deduction that generate theories. The experimental model for understanding the individual implicated in the play the writer of The Hearer of Ice has passed though the bounders of the speed of light. The scientific and philosophical knowledge of Alfonso Vallejo has enabled him to reflect on his plays from the point of view of the laws of physics of Newton to quantum theory of Max Planck, from the most deterministic physics to the uncertainty principle of Werner Heisenberg. All the plays of Vallejo are full of continuous and discontinuous energy at the same time, that shares the best from the classics, breaks any mould and frontier, and is constantly opening new paths that no one has yet gone over. Far from soft theories and weak thinking, the plays of Alfonso Vallejo are a focus that light with power the possibility of more habitable world. Theatre is life, and life is paradise. He regularly makes us mistrust these principles, the existence of war, famine, pandemics, human and environmental terrorism, global fear, unadmired governments and some of our close neighbours. But, some depending on these terrible dangers, here is Vallejo's theatre that reminds us that truth, kindness and beauty are possible and that we can design and build a better life and world.
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· Article: Comicidad y doble lectura en El Escuchador de hielo, de Alfonso Vallejo. Author: Juana Escabias.
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· Article: El escuchador de Hielo de Alfonso Vallejo. Author: Magda Ruggeri.
To read "Article: The hearer of Ice of Alfonso Vallejo" click HERE
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· Ácido Sulfúrico. Publicaciones de la Asociación de Directores de Escena de España. Colección Premio Lope de Vega (2008). Accésit al Premio Lope de Vega 1975. Prólogo de José Gabriel López Antuñano.
Para leer el prólogo de José Gabriel Antuñano pulsar AQUÍ
Para leer la entrevista con Alfonso Vallejo pulsar AQUÍ
“La trayectoria de dramaturgo de Alfonso Vallejo es una de las más peculiares de la escena española: ajeno a circuitos, grupos o modas, siempre a contracorriente y con una idea muy definida de la función del teatro, se ha abierto paso en la historia del teatro del último tercio del siglo XX, aunque con una presencia intermitente en los escenarios españoles, porque su teatro, por sus temas y estructura dramática, es más aceptado en Centroeuropa que en países del entorno latino.”
“Estas referencias dejan claras la dificultad para encuadrar a Vallejo en una de las categorías del teatro español, si es que esto fuera necesario. Más allá del genérico y manido calificativo de vanguardista o autor experimental, se le puede alejar de las tendencias preponderantes: distanciado del realismo o del teatro de denuncia que se planteaba en los años finales de la dictadura, o bien del teatro escapista que salió en busca de un éxito comercial en la etapa de la transición. El teatro de Alfonso Vallejo está penetrado por su carácter independiente y su caudalosa imaginación; por su formación y conocimientos científicos, o expresado de otro modo, por la absorción de la cultura desde el mundo de la ciencia; y por los gustos imperantes en Centroeuropa, aunque él no sea demasiado consciente de esta realidad. En este terreno arraiga su obra dramática.”
“Variedad, añadiría, también de temas, donde sólo se atisba un único hilo conductor, su preocupación por el hombre, un ser concebido en libertad pero que se degrada paulatinamente en contacto con la sociedad de su tiempo, aunque siempre sus obras quedan abiertas a la esperanza. En su teatro, unas veces se asiste a este proceso, en otros casos se trata de personajes que el devenir del tiempo ha deteriorado y que se enfrentan ante una situación límite. La convivencia humana no parece ser capaz de regenerar las conductas humanas, antes al contrario es ésta la que destroza o estropea los sueños, las utopías, los anhelos lógicos de la condición humana.”
Las consecuencias de ese descenso a los infiernos de los personajes presenta un denominador común la dificultad de la existencia, del hombre que se encuentra en soledad o rodeado de otros iguales que desarrollan una violencia excesiva, que crea conflictos inútiles. La crueldad en el comportamiento, la falta de una mirada compasiva ante los problemas de los demás, el egoísmo o las frustraciones que lastran los comportamientos, son otras derivaciones de esta perversión del ser humano.
“Vallejo aplica en la construcción de éstos un interesante proceso introspectivo donde sus conocimientos científicos de la psiquiatría cobran un importante valor.”
“El deterioro de los personajes se produce en convivencia con sus semejantes, pero debajo de esta relación personal existe un entramado social mal construido que está en la base de los problemas y desajustes de la persona. Las guerras, los conflictos sociales, los ejercicios abusivos del poder y otras formas de corrupción social se atisban como circunstancias que provocan esa realidad inasumible y fabricada por una sociedad que critica sin tregua, con cierto de sentido del humor, aunque éste se tiña de cierta sordidez.”
“Esta preocupación por el hombre se concreta en los muchos personajes que pueblan su producción dramática, que pueden distinguirse por los patronímicos y por su configuración expresionista. Huye, en primer lugar, de nombres reconocibles y acude a la utilización de nombre extranjeros, con un afán de superar lo concreto y de universalizar los contenidos de su propuesta dramática, como en su momento hiciera el teatro del absurdo. Más llamativa resulta la tipificación expresionista de sus personajes a los que describe con una presencia externa deformada pero no caricaturesca, porque lo que intenta proponer son aquellos rasgos más sobresalientes que conforman y determinan la personalidad y los comportamientos de un individuo y que son la traducción externa y deformada, de deformidades internas perceptibles al especialista aunque no al público de teatro, si carecieran de esos rasgos distintivos y exagerados.”
“Esta presentación expresionista de unos personajes que, a su vez, realizan unas acciones raras o controvertidas, ilógicas a un espectador ajeno, pero coherentes con su psiqué enfermiza producen extrañeza y distancia de un lado, pero de otro provocan sensaciones o sentimientos encontrados que iluminan la fábula teatral. Este efecto utilizado en algunas obras del teatro alemán de mediados del siglo XX también se puede apreciar en la pintura, llamando la atención, concentrando la mirada y el interés del espectador, para luego reaccionar ante la realidad plasmada sobre un lienzo.”
“De esta concepción de los personajes arrancan algunas dificultades para las puestas en escena en España. La frontera que separa lo esperpéntico, la exageración expresionista de la farsa es muy débil, si no se manejan con habilidad tan diferentes registros. Lo primero consigue amplificación e intensidad, logra tensión y fuerza dramática, y a todo lo más asoma una ironía; la farsa desconcierta, casa mal con los contenidos propuestos por Vallejo y produce los efectos contrarios a los deseados,”
“La estructura formal de sus obras rompía en los inicios de los setenta con la forma de escribir teatro en España. Dividas, de ordinario, en dos partes, prescindía del principio de la causalidad dramática. La estructura fragmentaria, los cambios de escena sin un aparente motivo, la acumulación de situaciones en las que los personajes muestran sus peculiares comportamientos, son algunas de las características de la concepción formal del teatro. En este marco, plantea unas escenografías, en algunas de sus obras con espacio escénico compartido para cambiar de lugar sin perder tiempo en interminables transiciones.”
“Si algo resume la escritura dramática de Alfonso Vallejo es su independencia, su talante innovador, su coherencia para escribir cuanto y como ha querido al margen de modas literarias e imposiciones críticas o de público,”
“Cuando Alfonso Vallejo irrumpe en la escena española, lo hace con un teatro poco usual para el espectador de los años setenta, y me atrevería a escribir que para el público que se acerca a las salas en los inicios del siglo XXI.”
“El expresionismo se hará más patente en la estructura dramática, la deformación sistemática de personajes y situaciones, que sin apartarse de un modelo inspirado en la realidad social, distorsiona aquellos rasgos que le parecen más pertinentes para conseguir sus objetivos; del absurdo toma prestado la estilización de algunos personajes, las acciones ilógicas que en su enunciación provocan un humor teñido de tristeza capaz de romper la pasiva tranquilidad del espectador y la incongruencia de los diálogos que apoya la soledad e incomunicación que rodea a sus personajes.”
“ Ácido sulfúrico tanto por sus antecedentes estilísticos, como por su contenido, mostrar una sociedad en su desintegración, y por su estructura dramática es representativa del teatro de Alfonso Vallejo, más conocido y apreciado fuera de nuestras fronteras que en España, donde su teatro sigue sin encontrar su sitio.”
“Esta ruptura con la estructura tradicional también se percibe en el desarrollo de la acción dramática que no es consecuencia de los conflictos que se generan, sino de la sucesión de peripecias que Vallejo propone y que afectan a sus personajes y al desarrollo de la fábula. Es evidente que desde el planteamiento de la estructura teatral, Vallejo muestra desde la concepción de su propio teatro su alejamiento de toda suerte de realismo.”
“Por último, señalo que el alejamiento de los personajes de Ácido sulfúrico de todo realismo deja libertad a Vallejo para elaborar una fábula, en la que los personajes son manejados por la mano de su hacedor, para construir una historia que se arraiga en el subconsciente, pero que revela comportamientos no aceptados por el autor y constructora de una sociedad desquiciada, donde la violencia, el odio, la crueldad o la venganza llegan a ser normas de comportamiento.”
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· El Desguace. Publicaciones de la Asociación de Directores de Escena de España. Colección Premio Lope de Vega (2008). Premio Lope de Vega 1976. Prólogo de Enrique Herreras.
Para leer el prólogo de Enrique Herreras pulsar AQUÍ
“El teatro, para Vallejo, más que género literario, es género visionario, de la visión. Es, pues, siguiendo a Ortega, una “metáfora visible”, donde el mundo real desaparece tras algo representado. Un lugar donde el espectador recibe esa irrealidad, se hace partícipe de ella y así sale de sí mismo, de la vida habitual y real para entrar en el mundo de la farsa.”
“La metáfora es, en Vallejo, no sólo un medio de expresión, sino también un medio de intelección, un procedimiento intelectual. Mediante la metáfora el genuino objeto estético se revela en forma viviente; el mecanismo de la metáfora consiste en formar un nuevo objeto en oposición al objeto real.”
“Un objeto artístico que consiste en expresar lo que la humanidad no ha podido ni podrá jamás expresar de otra manera. Y, en este caso, la metáfora es una substancia y no un ornamento. La metáfora no es, pues, sólo un recurso literario, sino también un recurso existencial.”
“Por ello, nuestro autor nunca elige un camino ya trillado, una fórmula ya ensayada, sino que cada nueva obra es un acto de inspiración (con oficio), o como señala Gutiérrez Carbajo, “un reto constante, una indagación y una interrogación permanentes, y Alfonso Vallejo no para de investigar en los misterios de la vida y del teatro” Un teatro cardiovascular, añadiríamos.”
“ En realidad, su obra y cada una de sus partes no serían lo que son si su autor no fuese un filósofo y un neurólogo clínico. Tres personas en una, la de quien ha reflexionado profunda y largamente sobre el misterio de la vida.”
“Antes de seguir, me gustaría puntualizar lo dicho a partir de una apreciación de Enrique LLovet en su prólogo a la edición de Cangrejos en la pared, Latidos, Eclipse (Ed. de la Torre): “Sin la vitalidad esencial de su libertad creadora no habría podido expresarse. Sin la vitalidad esencial de su libertad creadora no habría podido expresarse. Sin la vitalidad primaria de su humor y de su poesía no habría podido hacer teatro. Sin la energía de esos fondos motores genéricos de toda la mecánica de sus propuestas tampoco podría ser comprendido”.
Una libertad creadora que ha dado vida escénica a distintos temas, todos fundamentales del existir del ser humano: Denuncia del poder e indagación de la condición humana (Ácido sulfúrico, El desguace), denuncia del belicismo (A tumba abierta), lo psíquico y lo mental (Monólogo para seis voces), bajada a los infiernos, como imagen de la interioridad de cada hombre ( El cero trasparente), la muerte y el asombro de la vida (Infratonos); las verdad, el conocimiento, la realidad y el teatro dentro del teatro (Monkeys), dialéctica de la utopía y contrautopía (Sol ulcerado), la incomunicación, la muerte y el amor (Orquídeas y panteras), relaciones de dependencia y de poder (Gaviotas subterráneas), la posibilidad de un conocimiento objetivo (Jindama), la complejidad que entraña lo real (Ébola-Nerón), contra la crueldad y la amenaza nuclear (Hiroshima-Sevilla 6A) o la violencia injustificada (El escuchador de hielo)…”
“Dichos así, de forma telegráfica nos dan una idea general de su obra, pero cada obra es mucho más que una frase, en el contenido y en la forma. En un contenido que, aunque repita constantes (violencia injustificada, la “salvajería de la razón”, de la tiranía, de la opresión, los enigmas de la vida…) permanece siempre abierto, en el sentido dado por Umberto Eco. Porque Vallejo, como Joyce, por buscar el ejemplo planteado por Eco, pretende hacer saborear de manera siempre diferente un mensaje que en sí mismo (y gracias a la forma que lo realiza) es plurívoco.”
“ En la forma - inseparable del contenido, porque ya lo dijo Ionesco: cambiar la forma es la mejor manera de cambiar la forma de ver el mundo- persiste un cuestionamiento continuo del código aristotélico, llegando su teatralidad a límites insospechados. Siempre con un grado de de provocación, que actúa como catapulta de una dialéctica en la búsqueda de imágenes, con una investigada fisicidad de los personajes, de autenticidad corporal lejos de la simulación decimonónica, un material íntegro que, como decíamos, es carne de puesta en escena radicalmente teatral y a la vez orgánica.”
“Filosofía, pues, entendida en los dos aspectos: por los temas tratados, y la manera de tratarlos. Filosofía hecha teatro. Filosofía no exenta de notable sentido del humor, un sentido que se adhiere en muchos diálogos y situaciones. Son muchas la obras de Vallejo que se nutren de un lenguaje farsesco, y un tanto desquiciado, de fuerte contenido erótico-burlesco. Sus obras no renuncian a nada. “
“Un teatro, pues, de escritor de gran creatividad. Instintivo hasta la médula, su obra nace de corazonadas, pero siempre al lado de un intelecto hecho y derecho (repleto de curiosidad). Un intelecto que se derrite en teatralidad. Un intelecto que para realizar su función precisa reinventar la realidad.”
“Para Vallejo, la realidad es un extraordinario acontecimiento que une el presente, el pasado y el futuro. Los recuerdos, los anhelos y el sufrimiento forman parte de esta realidad, y el teatro abarca esa área de “trasfiguración” de la realidad pero de forma “representada”. Mediante símbolos, sueños y pasiones, ideas.”
“El lenguaje, la forma de dialogar, es fundamental en Vallejo, quien, como ya hizo Nietzsche, nos redescubre sus orígenes que van más allá de los procesos lógicos, ya que nace del impulso (el que tienen sus personajes) para expresar su experiencia vital. Una experiencia originaria y única ligada a sensaciones nerviosas, de dolor, placer, odio, amor, impotencia, admiración, belleza, fascinación, estupor, extrañeza, embelesamiento, recelo, pavor, melancolía, deleite, solaz, sosiego… Pero esta experiencia cambiante, que pasa del dolor al placer y del placer al dolor de forma azarosa es una aventura, continuo riesgo, enigma. El abismo de la realidad, en perpetuo devenir, en continuo cambio, es inaccesible y por ello nos desconcierta inagotablemente.”
“Cualquier cosa, piensa Vallejo, que entraña al hombre puede ser motivo de teatro. Por ello sus personajes, según él, hacen lo que pueden, en cárceles, manicomios, espacios vacíos. Se enfrentan a las circunstancias, con sus limitaciones y grandezas. Y nunca se calman, nunca son rebaño, sosiego, nunca se orientan en un mundo domesticado.”
“Y el teatro nos ayuda a detectar la compleja realidad en que vivimos, inventando una vida paralela, producto de la ficción y de la fantasía, poniéndola delante de nosotros, para que con los innumerables sistemas de identificación que tenemos incorporados en nuestro cerebro, podamos, al reconocernos, conocernos mejor.
Puede decirse, por tanto, que el discurso filosófico de Vallejo no se “hace servir” del escenario como simple vehículo narrativo, sino que “hace” de su propia esencia simuladora, y al mismo tiempo real (tiene su propia realidad) parte integral de aquello que expresa.”
“Y aquí, en esta obra, nos encontramos más que con personajes psicológicos con elaboraciones mentales. Son personajes que no mantienen las formas, por lo que se percibe una deconstrucción del concepto de personaje como estructura mimética, es decir, como ser de ficción creado por copia directa o analógica de la realidad. Porque si el teatro es una indagación, ésta lo es sobre todo a nivel actoral (las obras de Vallejo brotan siempre pensando en el actor). El personaje, en este caso, permite un expresionismo al actor. Un expresionismo orgánico, porque, como ha señalado el propio autor, éstos deben de ser representado desde la verdad, la autenticidad y no desde el exceso.”
“Los personajes de Vallejo, y esta obra es un ejemplo, son instintivos, ideales para una amplificación de los recursos actorales: la voz, la fisicidad o la gestualidad. Pero todo ello debe ser verdad, repito, para que surta efecto lo buscado. Debe de ser verdad sin dejar de ser máscara. Son el corazón de la historia.”
“Relaciones y baile de máscaras, conflictivos siempre, pero no sólo corpóreos sino también de ideas, muchas ideas que entran en este horno escénico, y se calientan. Hierven.”
“En fin, muchos temas que se unen a muchas sensaciones, a una república de los sentido, porque no demos olvidarnos que éstos viven, surgen de un mundo ficcional, de esa otra realidad, que decíamos al mencionar a Ortega, de esa otra realidad que necesitamos para comprender la que vivimos todos los días. Y el teatro, como nos demuestra Vallejo, es un buen laboratorio, donde podemos vivir los conflictos de forma incruenta, y aprender. Después de atraparnos, claro.”
“Como resumen, habría que dar cuenta de que obras de este tipo revelan la realidad no sólo desde la puesta en escena de una idea, sino desde la creación de un mundo en el que tiene mucho que ver el aspecto pictórico pero también la presencia escénica de voces, gestos, sentimientos, discusiones… Obras cuyo fin no es llegar a la mar, a un modo de entender el teatro diferente al predominantemente mercantilista, y a espectador bien despierto, no el que busca sólo lo sabido, la fórmula que ya conoce, el camino trillado, las sensación de tranquilidad. Al contrario, el teatro de Vallejo pide un cambio en la actitud de dicho espectador, el que disfruta participando no sólo en la vivencia de sensaciones, sino también en la discusión de ideas. Las que proporciona un teatro vivo, siempre en movimiento, siempre inventándose.”
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· Ka-OS. Ed. Teatro de Papel (2011)
To read the comments of Alfonso Vallejo. click HERE
To read the Curriculum of Alfonso Vallejo click HERE
To read the prologue of Francisco Gutierrez Carbajo click HERE
“Alfonso Vallejo is one of the brightest stars in the universe of contemporary theater. That creative power and splendor are, perhaps, the elements that are most noticeable to those who attend his plays, which they classify in diverse ways. The characterizations are varied, normal for an artist who differentiates himself, not only from the rest, but also from himself. Every one of his plays is different from the others, like every one of his paintings or poem collections - which he creates with equal mastery - is different from the others. That an artist has been able to spend 50 years cultivating theater, poetry and painting with the skill, talent and art that Vallejo has is an extraordinary, unique phenomenon.” (p.-1)
“In all of Vallejo’s plays, even the tragedies, a ray of light shines through. This is theater of chiaroscura, blood, extreme situations, and of hope. It is not religious hope, however, and not even humanist hope; rather, it is a biological hope, one of transformation. Nothing begins and nothing ends - everything transforms. Death doesn’t exist, the great miracle of life, biological life, is what exists; it is the miracle of the universe never destroying energy and continuing its precise path. Hope is inevitable, since everything ends in a permanent transformation from one form of life to another. Thus, hope is shown to be a duty, an obligation, a reality. In Vallejo’s works we find his biography, but also the history of philosophy, of poetry, of science, of culture, of the redefinition of humanity, even though humanity might not need to be redefined. There is also a rebuke of foolishness, mediocrity, stupidity, and the lack of solidarity, honor and chivalry. What we have before us, therefore, is theater that is brave, full of life, and necessary.” (p.-7)
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· LIBRO DE REFERENCIA GENERAL (POESÍA, TEATRO Y PINTURA) "CARA A CARA CON ALFONSO VALLEJO"
AUTOR: FRANCISCO GUTIÉRREZ CARBAJO, CATEDRÁTICO DE UNIVERSIDAD DE LITERATURA ESPAÑOLA.
Cubierta: "Tiempo atrapado". Óleo de Alfonso Vallejo, 100 por 81. Técnica mixta.
To read "Cara a Cara con Alfonso Vallejo"click HERE
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· Article: Revista Estreno, 37.1 (2011):128-129. Author: Anton Pujol.
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