Lope in Manhattan: Hyperreality, Space, and Violence in Julián Mesri’s «Fuenteovejuna»

Christopher D Gascón

doi:10.5565/rev/anuariolopedevega.247

Abstract

This analysis of Repertorio Espanol’s 2013 production of Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna in New York City focuses on the elements of communication, space, and violence. In director Julian Mesri’s staging, modern media or technology at times replace the human messengers of the original text, which has the double effect of distancing the audience emotionally from the events reported while calling attention to the mediums themselves and their agendas. In this contemporary urban world of simulacra, space seems compressed and violence appears conceptual. Mesri presents Fuenteovejuna as a Baudrillardian hyperreality, in which representations eclipse “reality.” In doing so, however, he does not so much alter Lope’s original as highlight, with modern touches, a dynamic that pervades the original play, Lope’s corpus, and much of Spanish Golden Age drama. Mesri’s vision may appear strikingly contemporary, yet the mode of representation it foregrounds is classic Lope.

Highlights

This analysis of Repertorio Español’s 2013 production of Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna in New York City focuses on the elements of communication, space, and violence
A 1999 production by the University of Utah set the play in a U.S.-Mexican border town during the Mexican Revolution, where the action is performed by members of a traveling carpa troupe to Mexican corrido music (Scharine 1999)
Despite the great variety of stagings and interpretations of Fuenteovejuna, we have perhaps never seen it as Julián Mesri presents it to us at New York City’s Repertorio Español in 2013.2 In his production, Fuenteovejuna is not a village but a modern company or corporation, and all of the action is performed in a space furnished like the floor of a contemporary office, with desks, chairs, telephones, lamps, and cell phones

Summary

Introduction

This analysis of Repertorio Español’s 2013 production of Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna in New York City focuses on the elements of communication, space, and violence. Despite the great variety of stagings and interpretations of Fuenteovejuna, we have perhaps never seen it as Julián Mesri presents it to us at New York City’s Repertorio Español in 2013.2 In his production, Fuenteovejuna is not a village but a modern company or corporation, and all of the action is performed in a space furnished like the floor of a contemporary office, with desks, chairs, telephones, lamps, and cell phones.

Results

Conclusion