''Fuenteovejuna'' () is a play by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio ( , ; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literature ...

. First published in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in 1619, as part of ''Docena Parte de las Comedias de Lope de Vega Carpio'' (''Volume 12 of the Collected plays of Lope de Vega Carpio''),Edwards, Gwynne, ed. and trans. ''Lope de Vega, Three Major Plays'' (with ''The Knight of Olmedo'' and ''Punishment without Revenge''). Oxford University Press, 1999, p. xii. the play is believed to have been written between 1612 and 1614. The play is based upon a historical incident that took place in the village of Fuenteovejuna in Castile, in 1476. While under the command of the

Order of Calatrava The Order of Calatrava ( es, Orden de Calatrava, pt, Ordem de Calatrava) was one of the four Spanish military orders and the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Orde ...

, a commander, Fernán Gómez de Guzmán, mistreated the villagers, who banded together and killed him. When a magistrate sent by King

Ferdinand II of Aragon Ferdinand II ( an, Ferrando; ca, Ferran; eu, Errando; it, Ferdinando; la, Ferdinandus; es, Fernando; 10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), also called Ferdinand the Catholic (Spanish: ''el Católico''), was King of Aragon and Sardinia from ...

arrived at the village to investigate, the villagers, even under the pain of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

, responded only by saying "Fuenteovejuna did it."

Background

Rapid change took place in Spain in the years between the historical incident at Fuenteovejuna in 1476 to the writing of Lope's play in 1614. In that time, Spain united under the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

s and become a world superpower with the discovery of the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

. At the time of Lope's writing, Spain was still in the midst of a

Siglo de Oro The Spanish Golden Age ( es, Siglo de Oro, links=no , "Golden Century") is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise of the Spanish Empire under the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and the Spanish Ha ...

("Golden Century"), which saw growth in all fields of the arts and academics. Cross Calatrava

In 1469, seven years before the events at Fuenteovejuna, Princess Isabella I of Castile married Prince Ferdinand II of Aragon. With their marriage, the two major kingdoms of Spain— Castile and

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

—were joined. This marriage would later ensure the successful completion of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

'' of Spain from the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

. When Isabella ascended the throne upon the death of her half-brother,

Enrique IV Henry IV of Castile ( Castilian: ''Enrique IV''; 5 January 1425 – 11 December 1474), King of Castile and León, nicknamed the Impotent, was the last of the weak late-medieval kings of Castile and León. During Henry's reign, the nobles became ...

, in 1474,

Alfonso V of Portugal Afonso V () (15 January 1432 – 28 August 1481), known by the sobriquet the African (), was King of Portugal from 1438 until his death in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. His sobriquet refers to his military conquests in Northern Africa. ...

crossed into Spain in order to secure the throne for Juana, Princess of Castile, the daughter of Enrique. At the

Battle of Toro The Battle of Toro was part of the War of the Castilian Succession, fought on 1 March 1476, near the city of Toro, between the Castilian-Aragonese troops of the Catholic Monarchs and the Portuguese-Castilian forces of Afonso V and Prince John ...

, two years later, Isabella and Ferdinand's forces defeated the forces of Alfonso and Juana. The same year, Ciudad Real was attacked by knights of the

under the leadership of its Grand Master, 20-year-old Rodrigo Téllez Girón, who supported the claims to the throne by Alfonso and Juana. The city was of strategic importance due to its location near the border of Castile. It was during this invasion that Commander Gómez de Guzmán was killed by the villagers of Fuenteovejuna after he treated them poorly. After no single guilty party was found, Ferdinand pardoned the villagers from Fuenteovejuna.

Summary

Ferdinand of Aragon, Isabella of Castile

The first act opens in Almagro at the home of the Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava, Rodrigo Téllez Girón. Here, a commander of the order, Fernán Gómez de Guzmán, urges his superior to seize the town of Ciudad Real in the name of Juana and Alfonso of Portugal. Girón decides to capture the city. The village and villagers of Fuenteovejuna are introduced and speak of love. The Commander enters and attempts to take two of the women, Laurencia and Pascuala, back to his castle, but they resist and escape. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella discuss the capture of Ciudad Real and vow to retake it. Later, two young lovers, Laurencia and Frondoso, meet in the forest. When the Commander approaches, Frondoso hides and watches as the Commander attempts to force himself on Laurencia. As the Commander has put down his

crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fi ...

, Frondoso steps out and takes it. As Laurencia escapes his grasp, Frondoso points the crossbow at the Commander, leaving with only the crossbow as the Commander curses both of them. Act II begins in the village with a discussion among the peasants that is interrupted by the entrance of the Commander. He demands Esteban, Laurencia's father, to allow him to have her but he refuses and the Commander takes this as an insult. A soldier enters and begs the Commander to return to Ciudad Real (Royal City) which has just been surrounded by the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella. After the exit of the Commander, Laurencia and Pascuala go on the run with one of the peasants, Mengo. They are met by another peasant girl, Jacinta, who is being pursued by the Commander's servants. When Mengo protects her, they are both seized by the Commander's lackeys who will

whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

Mengo while Jacinta is raped by the Commander and then given to his men. Shortly afterwards, Esteban agrees to allow Laurencia and Frondoso to marry. The wedding proceeds but is interrupted by the Commander who arrests Frondoso, for his threat with the crossbow, as well as Esteban and Laurencia who protest his arrest. The third act opens with the men of the village meeting to decide how to handle the situation. Laurencia, having been beaten and subject to attempted ''

Droit du seigneur ('right of the lord'), also known as ('right of the first night'), was a supposed legal right in medieval Europe, allowing feudal lords to have sexual relations with subordinate women, in particular, on the wedding nights of the women. A ma ...

'' (though she beats off her attackers and escapes) enters, but is not immediately recognized. She reprimands the men for not attempting to rescue her, inspiring the men to kill the Commander. While preparations are being made to hang Frondoso, the band of villagers enters and kills the Commander and one of his servants. Flores, the surviving servant, escapes and rushes to Ferdinand and Isabella to tell what has happened. The shocked rulers order a magistrate to the village to investigate. The villagers, celebrating with the head of the Commander, are told of the magistrate's approach. In order to save themselves, the villagers say "Fuenteovejuna did it". The magistrate proceeds to torture men, women, and young boys on the

rack Rack or racks may refer to: Storage and installation * Amp rack, short for amplifier rack, a piece of furniture in which amplifiers are mounted * Bicycle rack, a frame for storing bicycles when not in use * Bustle rack, a type of storage bi ...

, but gives up after not receiving a satisfactory answer. Ferdinand and Isabella

pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the ju ...

the Grand Master and when the villagers enter and tell their story, they are pardoned as well.

Themes

Class struggle is one of the key concepts as there is a large gap between those in power and those without, namely farmers and peasants. The commander holes up the town with his power and wealth. Only as a collective are they able to fight back. Women's rights are another major theme, surprising as it may be for the time of this writing. The commander has taken the city as his personal harem. Once the attempted rape occurs with Laurencia, his downfall begins. It is Laurencia that encourages the town to rise against the Commander and the women that take the lives of officers. An additional theme as is tradition versus progress. Spain at the time was in the middle of much change per the backdrop of the play. The deaths of the Commander and Ortuno is not just murder but mutiny. While Ferdinand and Isabella decline to find the town guilty; they are not pleased to pardon them either despite the brutality.

Recent productions

The

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

ballet ''

Laurencia ''Laurencia'' is a genus of red algae that grow in temperate and tropical shore areas, in littoral to sublittoral habitats, at depths up to . Description ''Laurencia'' species have a thallus that is erect or decumbent with distichous, whorle ...

'' was based on ''Fuenteovejuna''. The play has been filmed several times in

and other languages, but never in English. A musical version, called ''Fuente Ovehuna'', was produced in 1972. ''Fuenteovejuna'' was produced as a play in three acts, in English translation b
William Colford
at

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

in 1972. A musical version of the play was produced by the State Theatre of Northern Greece in 1976-77, with music by

Thanos Mikroutsikos Athanasios "Thanos" Mikroutsikos ( el, Αθανάσιος (Θάνος) Μικρούτσικος; 13 April 1947 – 28 December 2019) was a Greek composer and politician. He is considered one of the most important composers of the recent Greek mu ...

and lyrics by Yorgos Michaelides. The play was produced at London's

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

in 1989, as adapted by

Adrian Mitchell Adrian Mitchell FRSL (24 October 1932 – 20 December 2008) was an English poet, novelist and playwright. A former journalist, he became a noted figure on the British Left. For almost half a century he was the foremost poet of the country's C ...

and directed by

Declan Donnellan Declan Michael Martin Donnellan (born 4 August 1953) is an English film/stage director and author. He co-founded the Cheek by Jowl theatre company with Nick Ormerod in 1981. In addition to his Cheek by Jowl productions, Donnellan has made theat ...

. ''Fuenteovejuna'' was produced at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 2008 (see Stratford Festival production history), with

Scott Wentworth Scott Wentworth (born 1955) is an American actor and director who immigrated to Canada in 1986. Early life Wentworth was born in Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1955. Career After starting his career in New York City, he began a ...

as the tyrant and Jonathan Goad and Sara Topham as the lovers. The ''Toronto Globe and Mail'' gave the production a favorable review. ''The Village'', directed by Nadia Fall at The Royal Stratford East is based on the Spanish play. It opens her inaugural season as Artistic Director of Stratford East. This contemporary work is set in India.

References

External links