Fuente Ovejuna/Lost in a Mirror

by Lope de Vega, Nicholas Dromgoole (Introduction)

Introduction by Nicholas Dromgoole.

Both plays are highly charged emotional works, full of Lope de Vega’s vitality. This adaptation of Fuente Ovejuna was performed in Declan Donnellan’s directorial debut at the Royal National Theatre.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Classics

176 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1993

About the author

Lope de Vega was a Spanish Baroque playwright and poet. His reputation in the world of Spanish letters is second only to that of Cervantes, while the sheer volume of his literary output is unequaled: he is estimated to have written up to 1,500 three-act plays – of which some 425 have survived until the modern day – together with a plethora of shorter dramatic and poetic works.

Reviews

[anotherLostKitten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both of the plays were pretty interesting but this was a rather whacky translation which took a number of liberties with the text I cannot say I was particularly fond of. Rendering

¡Peligro extraño y notorio!
Mas yo tomaré venganza
del agravio y del estorbo.
¡Que no cerrara con él!
¡Vive el cielo, que me corro!

as

To be insulted by a slave
And fall for a surprise attack!
I swear to God I'll pay him back
And I'll teach that little bitch how to behave
By screwing her on her sweetheart's grave

seems like a bit of a stretch, and the vulgar vernacular is rather out of place in a way that makes some lines in the play rather hard to take seriously. I'm rather unconvinced by Adrian Mitchell's skill as a lyricist.

Besides that complaint, I thought both of the plays were rather interesting on a larger, structural level. Lost in the Mirror is, I think, especially interesting, as it is rife with literary references, especially to Greek mythology, and I think the symbolism of the mirrors is well incorporated. Fuente Ovejuna, by contrast, seems somewhat more clumsy and didactic in the deliverance of its message. Both of the plays focus heavily on the theme of honor, though I think the somewhat subtler characterization of Lost in the Mirror handles the theme better.

Nicholas Dromgoole's introduction does a rather excellent job providing historical context to the plays.

[Clara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Na q decir 🕴🏻