Valle Inclan: The Lights of Bohemia

Written in the early 1920s, Lights of Bohemia is set in the twilight phase of Madrid’s bohemian artistic life against the turbulent social and political background of events between 1900 and 1920. The play’s protagonist, the poet Max Estrella, confronts the dilemma between art and social commitment and the problem of salvaging some sort of authenticity and identity in a context which converts him into an anachronism. This is the first play in a series of ‘esperpentos’ or ‘grotesques’ in which Valle-Inclan tries to convey the tragi-grotesque contradictions of his contemporary surroundings by the use of similarly contrasting registers in his theatre.