Teatro Mínimo

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1927 · Authors: Claudio de la Torre, Josefina de la Torre

The siblings Claudio and Josefina de la Torre created in their own family home at Playa de Las Canteras a very peculiar stage space which they called Teatro Mínimo. There, alongside classic texts, contemporary and avant-garde authors were also performed, turning this place into a prominent focus of artistic expression and experimentation within the rigid and conventional Canarian theatrical world of the first third of the 20th century. 

The first play performed in this "family theatre" was the dramatic tale El Viajero , a work by Claudio de la Torre, with his young sister Josefina playing the lead actress role. It was August 1927, a year that gave its name to a magnificent literary generation.

Teatro Mínimo, according to eyewitnesses who attended the successive performances, was nothing more than "a courtyard longer than it is wide (which) serves as a room for the spectators. At the back, a slit window serves as the opening to the tiny stage, which is one of the rooms of the house. It is a little theatre where simplicity and refinement seem to be one and the same. All scenic relief has been dispensed with and the performance unfolds with no more background than some curtains. It is art made at home (since it is not made in the city); but it is not a home theatre. I mean it is not entertainment art, but one of absolute seriousness".

This space also hosted literary-musical evenings and performances of pieces by the most avant-garde playwrights of the time such as Andriev, Shaw, or Synge. The aim was the vindication of art for art's sake, with no other purpose. The most advanced poetry found its proper stage expression here and the tiny auditorium welcomed both intellectuals seeking the new and local beach residents looking for a good time of entertainment.  

Although Teatro Mínimo gained some recognition within the small avant-garde art circles in the Canary Islands, the departure of the De la Torre siblings to the Peninsula (where both later developed fruitful careers) and the outbreak of the Civil War were sufficient factors for it to cease functioning. Nevertheless, its mark remained as an example of a stage space that, although limited in capacity, shone as a novel experiment where artistic freedom prevailed.

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