Fuenteovejuna is a drama play written by the Spanish writer Lope de Vega and first published in 1619, Madrid. The story of the play illustrates times in Spain when there was abundant abuse of power. In these conditions, we can see strong political aspects and characters on the play. Also, strong language use, songs, and dance metaphors reflect the origins where the play was initially created. The previous week, I attended to a version of Fuenteovejuna at the University of Houston, a version directed by Dr. Keith B. Kirk. A play filled with essential features such as costumes, actors, spaces, light, music, and a fundamental theme.
The first characteristic that stood out in the play were the costumes which, from the very first second, let me…show more content… The play was held in the Quintero Theatre, a blackbox theatre where the stage is very small. A great advantage about small spaces is that they enhance audience participation during the play. The director of the play, Dr. Kirk, moved things around a little to show spaces on a different way. For example, the king and the queen were located in light boxes on the sides of the stage. This demonstrated the supremacy and separation over the Fuenteovejuna town, which was in the main floor below them. Again, this distinction shows how power is an important aspect of the play. The king and queen were there, but at the same time they were not. In addition, they were on a different level above everyone else both explicitly and implicitly. When anyone wanted to communicate or speak to both the king and the queen, they would look to the front of the stage and not necessarily directly to them, again showing certain respect (and almost fear) towards them. Moreover, an interesting aspect of the stage to point out is the fact that every single person in the audience had a completely different perspective, not only internally but in the position they were seated. For example, people on the side could only see either the king or the queen while people in the front could see both. Consequently, this leads to different perception and interpretation from each group. Another point about this small theatre is that I could almost…show more content… Primarily, the music and sound of the play were extremely wonderful. They helped to exemplify the drama of every scene. Correspondingly, there was a specific sound which got my attention: the sound of two wooden sticks colliding, which I must admit, scared me because I knew something crucial (and even bad) was about to occur. It was obvious that after this particular sound, a critical moment was following, a moment when the audience’s attention was on its maximum. On the other hand, since the space on the theatre was precisely limiting, it could be observed the effort to divide moments with the help of light. This helped to identify sections and divisions of the play that otherwise would have been particularly difficult. This was something I have never seen in any other play. Usually, sets are divided by physical objects; instead in this play, the set was divided by light. Red for important critical moments, white for things that were currently occurring, and dark for people that were on a different location than the one in the present moment. These two aspects reaffirm how important it is to pay attention to not only the plot and characters of a play but to the aspects that help it follow its path and goal. All these pieces help the public to feel involved and part of the play as I certainly