 After starting his career as a novelist and journalist, Arniches turned to theatre in 1888 with the publication of his first play, "Casa editorial".Much of his work is set in lower-class Madrid and uses colloquial language, song, dance and music.Arniches was complimented in a 1935 interview by Federico García Lorca, often a scathing critic of contemporary Spanish theatre, as 'more of a poet than almost any of those who are writing theatre in verse at the moment'.