Stage Darkness in the Early Plays of Lope de Vega

This study examines the plays of the Cuarta parte de las comedias de Lope de Vega (1614) for evidence of the techniques used in staging night scenes in the public theaters during the 1590s and first decade of seventeenth century. With a preponderance of balcony scenes, these plays reveal a combination of staging strategies in which verbal cues and visual effects unite to convey the ilusion of darkness on the open-air platform stage. Explicit stage directions supply facts concerning costumes and props such as candles and torches, but the dialogue proves a richer source of information about staging. Descriptive passages provide imaginary scenery that would have aided in transforming the bare, sunlit platform—at least in the minds of the spectators—into a darkened room or a street at midnight. Reports and comments made by the characters themselves are often the only references to actions and gestures, such as stumbling, walking stealthily or even lying down as if asleep, that were obviously meant to be represented onstage. Supplying multiple cues for the invocation of conventional darkness, these texts disclose the process by which visual effects and stage business were used to underscore and enhance the spoken word in performances in a corral de comedias.