Chair. Madrid (2004). 1,631 pp. 35 €.

With a comprehensive introductory study of Arturo Ramos, Chair has met all the drama written by Miguel Mihura, one of the most important humor writers of English literature. In 1905 marks the centenary of his birth, which has led to the publication of this volume (also announced another on its prose and graphics) and others like the biography Mihura. Humor and Melancholy "(Algaba Ediciones ), Julian Moreira, one of the greatest scholars of the author. Mihura died in 1977, a year after being named academic.

From very young, his father was an actor and theatrical entrepreneur, lived near the theater world. Through his experiences in different traveling companies wrote in 1932 "Three hats, work that was rejected by all employers of the time as too risky. This caused the first failure did not look at the rupture and avant-garde design, and preferred to switch to a more commercial theater. During the civil war led in San Sebastian "The Gun", a magazine that will be the germ of "The Quail", which he founded after the war, in 1941, who led for only three years.

collated Mihura his humor and dedication to the work written for the film developed, either as writer or as the author of dialogues and voiceovers. In all its activities, he argued that "the real humor does not intend to teach or correct because it is not their mission. The only thing that humor is intended for an instant, we go out ourselves, we leave on tiptoe about twenty meters and give a tour around us watching us on one side and another behind and ahead, as before the mirrors of a tailor, and discover new features and profiles that did not know. "

After the war some works written in collaboration theater as "Long live the impossible!" (With José Calvo Sotelo), "neither poor nor rich but quite the opposite" (with tone) and "The case of women asesinadita" (with Alvaro de Laiglesia, who would succeed him in the direction of "The Quail"). None of these works triumphed commercially, which made him reconsider and adapt to the tastes of a conservative audience, which is the one that went to the theater.

Since then dosed innovative resources and is inclined to the sentimental. Installed in a theater based on a humor soft, clean, nonsense, where no room for political and social approaches. "My work," said Mihura "serves no social commitment, for me, artistically, I am free from all sorts of commitments. "

His comedies focus on love and I can not middle class, with all its kitsch and clichés in tow who insists again and again ridicule, as well as married life, one of his favorite themes, and some literary genres as the detective story. In these comedies, says Ramos, Mihura, "with great mastery of theatrical carpentry, worries, rather than the characterization of the figures and conceptual originality, action, intrigue, of the complicated plot and entertain and amuse the viewer. " From this period are "My beloved John," Maribel and the strange family "," Ninette and Mr. de Murcia "," Sublime decision "," La bella Dorotea "," Peach in syrup, among others.


Later, the morbid indolence of the author and the overcoming of theatrical models based on traditional patterns made his theater out of steam. The passage of time has taken its toll on some of his plays, the more commercial and less worked, but in some more than others, we should mention their ability to build agile and absurd dialogue, su gusto por lo inverosímil y por lo arbitrario, su divertido rechazo de los tópicos y de la omnipresente cursilería.

A su manera, como aparece en su obra más lograda, "Tres sombreros de copa", defendió la libertad individual, aunque para ello tuviese que disfrazar sus propósitos de sátira de los convencionalismos. Todas sus obras, dijo, siguen la línea de "ocultar mi pesimismo, mi melancolía, mi gran desencanto por todo, bajo su disfraz burlesco".

Adolfo Torrecilla