Compromise

One of the principal reasons for Buero's enduring success under Franco was his willingness to compromise. Whether this compromise was admirable or not has long been cause for debate, and the fact remains that the essence of Buero's wellknown posibilismo is concession. His posibilismo encompassed not only the style and themes of his theatre, but also his dealings with the censors, the theatre directors and the media. Hence posibilismo was what enabled him to deal effectively with the state apparatuses of Francoism.

It can be argued that all, or almost all, of the authors who chose to remain and work in Spain during the dictatorship were compromised. The few exceptions were those who wrote for posterity without the objective of publication or success in the lifetime of the regime. Buero himself acknowledged, to some degree, the compromise he engaged in, although he chose to portray his actions as fighting the dictatorship from the front line. There is no denying that his situation was sometimes an uncomfortable one. His position within the commercial theatre world at times alienated him from those outside it, many of whom saw the state-controlled commercial theatre as part of the ideological apparatus of the state. Nonetheless, as official censorship documents confirm, the regime did not trust Buero.