2013 Siglo de Oro Drama Festival, Chamizal

Each year the Chamizal National Memorial, located in El Paso, Texas, hosts the well-attended Siglo de Oro Spanish Drama Festival. 2013’s installment, which ran from March 6 to March 10, featured professional theater groups from Mexico (Puebla) and Spain (Murcia, Segovia, and San Clemente). The works produced included the more traditional comedia fare (El caballero de Olmedo and La vengadora de las mujeres), a theatrical re-creation of a liturgical ceremony (Misterio del Cristo de los Gascones), an adaptation of a narrative work (El coloquio de los perros), and a compilation of crowd-pleasing entremeses (De burladores y burlados). The following reviews, each written by a different reviewer, offer a critical look at these theatrical productions. The reviews and the reviewers are as diverse as the plays themselves and are meant to offer varying viewpoints and insights into a unique compendium of dramatic endeavors.

El caballero de Olmedo by Lope de Vega

On March 6, The Shake and Falstaff Company (Puebla, Mexico) opened the 2013 International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival at the Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso, TX, with a performance of Lope’s tragicomedy El caballero de Olmedo. Director Abril Mayett’s production takes several liberties with the setting and casting of the play with mixed results. Mayett frames the work within the context of Mexico’s Cristero War (1926–1929), during which Catholics and the Catholic Church rebelled against the harsh lines drawn between church and state by Mexico’s post-Revolution constitution. The setting is emphasized with varying effect through added and modified dialogue, costume, music, and two extra characters: a bishop and a town mayor. These incidental characters provide the bulk of the additional dialogue through a series of clandestine negotiations that, together, highlight the corruption, hypocrisy, and complicity of the milieu. Appearances of the obispo and the alcalde frame the work throughout, as does the accompaniment of a group of itinerant mariachis, in huaraches and sombreros, of comically dubious skill. The minimalist set and strings of lights crisscrossed overhead are reminiscent of a summer evening feria.

The unusual multiple castings crafted by Mayett, while extremely enterprising and cost effective, leave several issues unresolved without truly enhancing the production. The dizzying casting begins with Mayett herself, who plays both Inés and the gracioso Tello. Fernando Villa Proal plays not only the antagonist, Rodrigo, but also Inés’s father, Don Pedro, and the alcalde. Mario Eduardo D’León plays both Alonso and Leonor. Mónica Bejarano, amazingly, plays Fabia, Ana (the maid), the obispo, Rodrigo’s friend Fernando, and also the Sombra. The cast is certainly to be commended for tackling such a difficult acting (and costuming) challenge. Mayett’s performance, in particular, was a tour de force. Her characterization of each role was so distinctive that, at the curtain call, the audience was baffled by the “absence” of Inés; they had not realized that Mayett had simply taken her bow dressed as Tello (a tip of the hat and a letting-down of hair might have helped here).

Obviously, these double and even quintuple castings require some practical adjustments to the dramatic text. For example, because Inés and Tello can never appear onstage together, Fabia becomes the Latin teacher in the second act, and Tello’s lines are redistributed to Don Pedro. The very tall D’León, cross-dressed as Leonor, is forced to play up the height difference between him and Bejarano as Fernando. The resulting slapstick has them unable to keep their hands (and faces) off each other. This sexual comedy spills over to D’León’s portrayal of Alonso when he gets caught by Don Pedro in the house. Inés attempts to hide her physical pleasure as Alonso “hides” under her skirts.

When all is said and done, Mayett’s multiple castings and the resulting extradramatic consequences detract from the layers of meaning appended to the production by the Cristero War setting. The limited number of players minimizes opportunities to expose alliances or juxtapose oppositions. For example, since Rodrigo and Don Pedro can...