Staged readings from Spain’s Golden Age

Artistic director Leyma López presents a series of staged readings written by Spanish female playwrights.

Repertorio Español brings to the stage five pieces written by Spanish female playwrights. Through their main characters, these writers bring a different point of view of the relevant themes of the time: honor and the position of women in society.

Count Partinuplés

• By Ana Caro Mallén de Soto.
• On Tuesday, November 7 at 7 pm. Free, RSVP.

In Ana Caro’s imaginative twist on the Cupid and Psyche myth, the Empress of Constantinople, who is forced to choose a husband in order to provide an heir to the empire, finds a husband through the use of magic, creating an enchanted castle and hosting a supernatural banquet. Her devoted suitor, Count Partinuplés of France, abandons his previous love and defeats her other suitors (all princes) in a tournament, winning her as his wife. An anonymous French medieval romance novel from 1188, translated into Spanish and published in 1497, Portonopeus de Blois, served as the source for a large number of Spanish adaptations of the Cupid and Psyche story.

Strength In His Absence

• By Leonor de la Cueva y Silva.
• On Tuesday November 17 at 7 pm. Free, RSVP.

This classic play’s focus is the emotional and intellectual dilemma that a lady-in-waiting at the court faces when the soldier she loves and who has courted her for six years in secret is suddenly assigned to military duty against the French invasion of Naples. National interests are not what motivate the King to send him away. The King has fallen in love with her and his abuse of power leads him to eliminate his rival and to win her affection through many unethical ploys. All expect her devotion to waver in the face of the king’s advances, but the steadfastness of the protagonist will be rewarded.

Selection of Golden Age Short Plays

• On Tuesday November 21 at 7 pm. Free, RSVP.

The selection includes four different readings featuring various literary styles, which are as follows: loa, coloquio spiritual (spiritual colloquium), sainete and entremés. The readings are written by Sor Marcela de San Félix, Mariana Cabañas and Sor Francisca de Santa Teresa.

Good lover and good friend

• By Isabel María Morón.
• On Tuesday, November 28 at 7 pm. Free, RSVP.

Following neo-classic unities of time, space and action, this 18th century classic sentimental comedy of errors follows a young woman who is married to an old man whom she does not love. She is in love with her husband’s young friend but the husband thinks she is in love with his own son. A tangle of alleged adultery erupts since the son is secretly married to the sister of the old man’s wife. In the end, the confusion is cleared up between friends and lovers and bloodshed is avoided.

Friendship Betrayed

• By María de Zayas y Sotomayor
• On Tuesday, December 5 at 7 pm. Free, RSVP.

A tale of intrigue and conflict between the sexes explores women’s amorous experiences in a patriarchal society during the turbulent seventeenth century. Several complicated love triangles involving three suitors, four women and a pair of servants allow for an examination of various ways in which men and women approach the exigencies of love as well as a topic not often considered in the Spanish “comedia,” friendship among women. The women come up with a plan to conquer their suitors and make them keep their word. This ends up causing episodes of disappointments in love and friendship, which result in the women putting aside their emotional feelings in favor of the guidance of reason.

Performed in Spanish only. No English translation available.