“Luces de Bohemia” (Bohemian Lights), in the Teatro Goya Codorniu
The production, by the Teatro del Temple company, has been touring for six years
Luces de Bohemia is one of the most famous Spanish plays of the 20th century. This classic, by Ramón Valle-Inclán, is part of the secondary school curriculum and the first in the ‘esperpento’, or ‘grotesque’ style, a genre not exclusive to the Galician playwright in which reality, the characters and the language they employ are all grossly deformed.
The play, a production of the Teatro del Temple company, can be seen in the Teatro Goya Codorniu until the 30th of June. The fact that the production has been touring for six years is proof of its success, and while the version by Teatro del Temple, directed by Carlos Martín, remains faithful to the spirit of the original text, the staging leans more towards the atemporal.
The plot of the play revolves around a blind poet, Max Estrella, his friend Latino, and a group of additional marginal characters who wander through the streets of a Madrid that is both sordid and, naturally, grotesque - an allegory, with political overtones, of 1920s society that quite possibly has more in common with that of today.