Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega

Philip Howard, until recently Artistic Director of the Traverse Theatre, has adapted Fuenteovejuna, a play by the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega. First published in Madrid in 1619, the play is based upon an actual historical incident that took place in the village of Fuente Obejuna in Castile in 1476. While under the command of  the Order of Calatrave, the commander, Fernán Gómez de Guzmán, mistreated the villagers, who banded together and killed him. When a magistrate sent by King Ferdinand II of Aragon arrived at the village to investigate, the villagers, even under the pain of torture, responded only by saying “Fuenteovejuna did it.”

Starring: Elspeth Brodie, Philip Cairns and Joeseph Thompson