The “Mines” of the Golden Age seen by an English director

In the curriculum of the pedagogue and director of London Sarah Kane there are many Shakespeare titles: ‘The dream of a summer night’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘La Tempestad’, ‘King Lear’, ‘Macbeth’. He has done it in English and other languages ​​- “I speak several languages,” he says. But it was, … He acknowledges, a surprise that when he came to Spain in January 2023 to work, at the initiative of Vicente Fuentes, with the young national classical theater company, its then director, Lluís Homar, offered to direct one of the best known works of the century of the century of Spanish gold: ‘Don Gil de las Calzas Greces’, by Tirso de Molina. “I don’t speak Spanish”. He decided, however, to get into what she calls the “Mining field of the classic Spanish verse” and, after seeing that Tirso wrote this text the same year that Shakespeare sent to the printing press his last work, ‘La Tempestad’, was encouraged to address the staging. «Discovering the echoes between both playwrights has been a stimulating challenge. At first the work seems pure lightness, but in all those crazy, frivolous and trivial moments, the acuity and imaginative speed of the characters create a depth and an essence that also leave space for reflection.

‘Don Gil de las Calzzas’ –which has been qualified as “the most perfect tangle comedy of the Golden Age” – tells the story of Juana, a woman from Valladolid who, after being deceived by her fiance, Don Martín, decides disguise themselves as a man and travel to Madrid to recover it. Juana becomes Don Gil de Albornoz and rivals Don Martín himself for the love of a rich lady named Doña Inés. It also takes the identity of Doña Elvira, neighbor and confidant of Doña Inés.

Production is the last one that will bring together the members of the sixth promotion of the young National Classical Theater Company. Íñigo Arricibita, Xavi Caudevilla, Cristina García, Ania Hernández, Antonio Hernández Fimia, Pascual Laborda, Cristina Marín-Miró, Felipe Muñoz, Miriam Queba, María Rasco and Marc Servera are the interpreters.

A uniqueness of Sarah Kane’s staging is that three different actresses embody each of the protagonist’s personalities: “Sitting in the kitchen of my house in London – saysla Sarah Kane – this image appeared to me.” The British director usually works from images, which can be faded after a couple of days, but she did not, and began working with her in the trial room. Also, he admits, he joined the fact of working with a young company with several actresses who had not had space in the cast. And it is that the protagonist woman, Mrs. Juana, occupies “the center of the work” and “demonstrates her ability to make fun of two alter ego, in order to take revenge at the same time to get her man.”

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