Theater Reviews

Oct 4, 1999 - A Valiant "Fuente Ovejuna" Opens the Nevada Rep Season

By Jack Neal

"Fuente Ovejuna" ("The Sheep's Well") is considered the masterpiece of the 17th century Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, although - because so many of his 1,800 plays have been lost - no one will ever be quite sure it's his best work.

De Vega based his three-act drama (in its current production it's done with one intermission) on an historical incident in 1476, when a Spanish town - Fuente Ovejuna - rebelled against its tyrannical leader, and slaughtered him and his bullying guards. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sent an inquisitor to investigate the incident, but all the townspeople claimed joint responsibility. "Fuente Ovejuna lo hizo," they kept saying, meaning "The whole town did it." Today, "Fuente Ovejuna lo hizo," "it's no one's fault,"is part of the Spanish vernacular. Although de Vega's play was written around 1612, the abuses of power it depicts remain painfully close to our times.

Kudos to director Carolyn Wray for bringing this play to the attention of Reno audiences. Kudos also to the director for her obvious love of the script and her extensive creative work embellishing the play with music, original lyrics and choreography.

Unfortunately, many things seem to be missing. The de Vega words are in translation and often less than poetic. Less than poetic words delivered by a cast of relative inexperience can lead to unexpected results - laughter, for example, where none is intended. It's not my intent to put this production down because there's so much about it that is well intended and that comes off as well thought out and well rehearsed.

But the play does gallop through its exposition and resolution with such a head of speed and lack of motivation it makes one wonder if more than just de Vega plays haven't been lost over the centuries - pages of script, perhaps. Since the play is considered an epic and since this production with music and dance added comes in in less than two hours including intermission, calculations indicate much has been cut. De Vega, like Shakespeare (in reference to one New York Shakespeare Company doing Shakespeare in three minutes), in half the time.

Add the problems with the pre-recorded guitar accompaniment, which was played half again as fast as it should have been on opening night (10/2/99), and this Nevada Rep season opener landed more on the side of valiant and gallant than compelling. The music's speed will be adjusted, the play's action will tighten up and things should be smoother sailing for the remainder of the run. What won't be so easily correctable are the production's motivational omissions and words that come off as being funny, when they should strike terror in the hearts of people of good will. For this "Fuente Ovejuna," camp is as close to being around the corner as is justice for the common folk of Spain.

Nonetheless, there's much to recommend. Virginia Vogel's costumes are sumptuous. Michael Fernbach's set is a wondrous reproduction of a 17th century Spanish square. Larry Walters' lighting is luminous. Gina Lopez-Sanchez's choreography is pleasant, occasionally even with sparks of excitement. And the cast aims to please and largely succeeds. Much to the director's credit this is a very lush presentation with fluid, cinematic staging.

The cast is huge, nearly 40 players, making traffic flow on stage a marvel in itself.

The tyrant Commander Fernandez Gomez is played with suitable furor and meanness by Bill McCandless. As the young lovers whose wedding precipitates the commander's violent actions, John L. Curtis (Frondoso) and Miranda Fairfield (Laurencia) manage their chores with reasonable poise, although Miss Fairfield does tend to eat the scenery in her show of pique over the inaction of Fuente Ovejuna's men. The remainder of the cast functions on a relatively mid-road level. The production's multiracial casting is more indicative of modern America than feudal Spain. Yet the call to collective action and the lesson that there is strength in unity is not a modern interpolation. What is missed most in this Nevada Rep production is the presentation's inability to adequately portray the power and majesty of people looking out for one another and demanding justice for all.

"Fuente Ovejuna" concludes its run this Wednesday (10/6/99) through Saturday at the Redfield Proscenium Theatre on the University of Nevada, Reno campus, 900 North Virginia Street, Reno. For information call 775 784 4047.