Fente Ovejuna Sparknotes

Braquece Smith, 1318836, Theatre 1331, Fuente Ovejuna
Fuente Ovejuna is a play written by the Spanish playwright, Lope de Vega. It was first published Madrid in 1619 as a reincarnation of an actual historical event that took place in the actual city of Fuente Ovejuna. The University of Houston’s theatre department put on a production of Fuente Ovejuna, successfully recreating the play’s story and theme with the use of superb acting, enveloping set pieces, and convincing costumes.
This play takes place in a remote village, of course, called Fuente Ovejuna. In the first act of the play, we are introduced to Frondoso and Laurencia, played respectively by Jacob Perkel and Constance Swain. The two childhood sweethearts live with their love in hiding,

in fear of being targeted by Fernan Gomez de Guzman, played by William Allen, a corrupt commander who has a keen eye for married women.

Frondoso and Laurencia both know that if they confess their love to the public, Gomez will then begin to attack Laurencia with more force and vigor than he already has. The two lovers, along with the rest of the town fear Gomez, unwillingly complying with his every wish in order to circumvent his irrational temper. However, as hard as they try, Gomez manages to find Laurencia alone atop a hill, where he makes an advance on her and tries to rape her. Frondoso comes to defend his love and takes the commander’s crossbow and turns it upon the commander, threatening to kill him. Both Laurencia and Frondoso get away, but this only angers the commander. Gomez, upset with his failed attempt at Laurencia, he changes his attention to the young Jacinta, played by Jeana Magallon. In an attempt to protect his fellow citizen, Mengo, played by Kenn Hopkins, steps in the way and receives 1000 lashes for treason against the commander. Thinking that the conflict is settled, Frondoso and Laurencia decide to confess their love to the public and get married. During their wedding, the commander shows up and arrests Frondoso for his threat with the crossbow, orders his servants to bean Alonso,

Laurencia’s father, played by Mason Patterson, for his disrespectful, but true, statements about Gomez’s character, and kidnaps Laurencia, sending her to be passed around by his guards. The men of Fuente Ovejuna decided to have a secret meeting to talk about the commander and how to potentially solve the problem. The meeting is interrupted when Florencia comes back, beaten with tattered clothes. She goes on a monologue reprimanding the men for not attempting to protect her or rescue her. Her speech inspires the men to finally take a stand against the commander. The villagers gathered together, stormed the commander’s fortress and killed him along with his two servants, crying “death to all false Christians,” “death to all rapists.” One of the servants survived and ran to Ferdinand and Isabella to tell them of the treason that occurred. The king and queen ordered a magistrate to investigate the village and find out who was at fault for the murder of the commander. When the magistrate tortured and confronted all of the villagers, they responded with, “Fuente Ovejuna did it!” Ferdinand and Isabella pardon the Grand Master as well and the villagers.
The obvious themes of Fuente Ovejuna are usually said to be: heroism, justice, or lack thereof, and the triumph of good over evil.

However, I believe that the underlying theme of society’s circumvention of the requirements of justice. Simply put, I believe the theme of this play is the Machiavellian thought process that the right action is the one that upholds the political power of the state. There are four pivotal plot points in this play that support this theme: when Frondoso threatens the commander with his bow, when the commander arrests Frondoso and kidnaps Laurencia, when the town revolts and kills the commander, and when Fernando and Isabel intervene on the investigation in order to reach a final verdict. Within these four key plot points, there are elements that show how the villagers act in a way that causes the commander to encounter the most trouble possible in order to protect their rights. The play rightfully displays society’s natural tendency to defend its own people from any corruptness that shows itself. In each of the four plot points, the protagonist, Laurencia, is trying to either stop the commander’s tyranny on her own or with the help of her fellow villagers; while the antagonist, Commander Guzman, is always creating obstacles that require Laurencia to rethink her plan and put her back into her “rightful place.” In relation to the theme, these two characters are the ignitions to every conflict in the play. The men of the village wouldn’t have felt the

need to revolt if Laurencia hadn’t given her monologue, and the village would be content with their rulers if Commander Guzman could keep it in his pants. However, the primary conflict between the two of these characters is obviously the differing opinions in attraction towards each other. Constance Swain, who played Laurencia, was such a convincing and enthralling actress, she was able to display her character’s wide range of emotions very well. William Allen, who played Commander Guzman, was also a very convincing actor, his ability to portray anger and rage while not making it seem forced is impressive. These two actors as well as the other characters are the reason these four plot points that I have pointed out are so pivotal to the play; however, there are other aspects that makes these scenes important. The play’s set, specifically in the scene with the secret meeting and the scene when Frondoso threatens the commander with a crossbow; show that the characters are truly afraid of their ruler, so much so that they hide almost every aspect of their lives, even from each other in order to keep themselves safe. To explain more, every scene in the play where the villagers are in public, the commander shows up to wreak havoc on their lives. Contrarily, when the villagers are in hiding, they are safe from the commander, and coincidentally, whenever they are in hiding, they are planning or plotting against the commander; in order to protect themselves. Another aspect of the play’s elements that helps the audience understand the play and its elements better is the character’s costume, specifically the cross of the Order of Caltrava. The commander and his guards are christened with the cross on their garments, while the villagers are dressed in normal attire. There are times during the play where the commander refers to the cross and the reason he is better than the rest of the villagers. As the play goes on, there are several subtle remarks by the villagers that the only thing that differentiates them from the commander is the cross he wears on his chest. Although these remarks are subtle, I believe they help the audience understand the story from the villager’s point of view. Rather than seeing them as common peasants and the commander as royalty, the audience should view the commander as common people, but with a cross on his chest that gives him a superiority complex. Looking at the story from this aspect could explain why no one in the village truly respects him and does everything in their power to defy him. Two aspects of the play that I believe lacked in their ability to add more to the play are the lighting and sound aspects of the play. There were very few scenes that actually involved sound, excluding the rhythmic song-talk that occurred every once in a while that was pointless to me and the storming of the commander’s castle when there was an annoying, persistent clacking sound. The only instance where sound was used effectively in the play was the song that was sung about the women of Fuente Ovejuna towards the end of the play. This song was used to explain the power that the women of Fuente Ovejuna had; moreover, it showed how the protagonist was taking her final stand against the antagonist. The lighting in the play was more prevalent; however, it just wasn’t used effectively in my opinion. The lights were dimmed to allow for the moving of set pieces and that’s about it. Not to say that the lighting hindered the play’s portrayal of its theme, but it neither helped nor hurt the play, essentially it was irrelevant.
This production of Fuente Ovejuna, performed by the University of Houston’s theatre department and directed by Keith Byron Kirk, displayed a theme of societal revolt for the protection of its own power. This theme is supported by four pivotal key plot points and within those points are uses of the play’s set, characters, costumes, etc. to help the audience better understand the theme and story of the play.