The title character of The Dog in the Manger is the Countess Diana. Like the dog in Aesop’s fable she’ll not allow others to enjoy what she cannot. In the dog’s case it was food. In Diana’s it is the love of her servant, Teodoro. Her rank gives her power over him, which she enjoys, but this power would vanish if she wed him.
Diana’s decision to wed could reduce her to the status of property. It’s a serious dilemma when one considers that the heroines in Lope de Vega’s plays were often abandoned, raped or killed by their men. Lope highlighted marriage's contradictions in the play Justice without Revenge. When the heroine learns of her husband's affairs she has one of her own. He responds by slaughtering her to restore his "honor." Though frowned upon, a husband in 17th Century Spain was within his rights to murder a wife suspected of adultery, while women had no such legal recourse.
Diana is not slaughtered but she fits other patterns. A recurring figure in de Vega’s comedies was the mujer esquiva; a woman averse to marriage. Her plight is well explored in Women and Society in the Spanish Drama of the Golden Age by Melveena McKendrick (1974). Rather than explore the rational arguments for her singledom, de Vega would make it the result of vanity or pride that must be overcome by the hero. Still he allowed his women to battle against social convention before restoring the status quo. McKendrick concludes “By the standards of their day the Spanish dramatists of the Golden Age were enlightened and sympathetic men in their attitude to women. One cannot ask for more.” How much more should Diana ask of us in 2008? How could she win Teodoro and keep her self respect? de Vega himself provides an answer that we look forward to revealing this fall!
Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge
For more information on our production of The Dog in the Manger please visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!
The chief villain in The Dog in the Manger is probably social prejudice. The secondary villains are a pair of bumbling counts who court Diana and plot against Teodoro. Artistic Director James Palmer has given me an interesting assignment. I’m to research the feasibility of making the counts members of the Spanish Inquisition.
I was intrigued. Lope de Vega frequently introduced local politics into his tragedies and honor plays. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand appeared themselves as a deux ex machine to rescue the wronged peasants in Fuente Ovejuna and Peribanez. However as I read about the gruesome instruments of torture and the ugly politics behind the movement I wondered if the Inquisition would be too much for the comedy to bear. It seemed that if the Inquisition accused Teodoro of heresy he wouldn’t survive till Act III. It didn’t take long to convince me the Inquisition could be funny. Mel Brooks had them perform a musical number and Monty Python simply made them ninnies. I was further encouraged to read that the people of Naples, where Dog in a Manger is set, did not take the inquisition seriously.
According to The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision by Henry Kamen (1998) the “Italians felt that Spanish hypocrisy in religion, together with the existence of the Inquisition, proved that the tribunal was created not for religious purity, but simply to rob the Jews…. Moreover, the racialism of the Spanish authorities was scorned in Italy, where the Jewish community led a comparatively tranquil existence. As the Spanish ambassador at Rome reported in 1652: ‘In Spain it is held in great horror to be descended from a heretic or a Jew, but here they laugh at these matters, and at us, because we concern ourselves with them.’” (p.309).
This opens up some possibilities! Teodoro’s parentage is already at question in the play and if his rivals were members of the Inquisition they could certainly try to spread scandal against him without necessarily leading to execution by the Italian authorities. I’ll be interested to see where this path could lead us.
Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge
For more information on our production of The Dog in the Manger please visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.
I was intrigued. Lope de Vega frequently introduced local politics into his tragedies and honor plays. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand appeared themselves as a deux ex machine to rescue the wronged peasants in Fuente Ovejuna and Peribanez. However as I read about the gruesome instruments of torture and the ugly politics behind the movement I wondered if the Inquisition would be too much for the comedy to bear. It seemed that if the Inquisition accused Teodoro of heresy he wouldn’t survive till Act III. It didn’t take long to convince me the Inquisition could be funny. Mel Brooks had them perform a musical number and Monty Python simply made them ninnies. I was further encouraged to read that the people of Naples, where Dog in a Manger is set, did not take the inquisition seriously.
According to The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision by Henry Kamen (1998) the “Italians felt that Spanish hypocrisy in religion, together with the existence of the Inquisition, proved that the tribunal was created not for religious purity, but simply to rob the Jews…. Moreover, the racialism of the Spanish authorities was scorned in Italy, where the Jewish community led a comparatively tranquil existence. As the Spanish ambassador at Rome reported in 1652: ‘In Spain it is held in great horror to be descended from a heretic or a Jew, but here they laugh at these matters, and at us, because we concern ourselves with them.’” (p.309).
This opens up some possibilities! Teodoro’s parentage is already at question in the play and if his rivals were members of the Inquisition they could certainly try to spread scandal against him without necessarily leading to execution by the Italian authorities. I’ll be interested to see where this path could lead us.
Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge
For more information on our production of The Dog in the Manger please visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Welcome to the 2008-2009 Season
In 2007-2008 we began a dialogue with our audiences through a series of post-show discussions, guest panels and Semantic Labs. The positive response has encouraged us to expand the conversation online. I’m pleased now to welcome you to the Red Tape Theatre Company blog!
After reading hundreds of plays, narrowing down to a list of 15, then tossing the list out and starting from scratch, we are pleased to announce our 2008-2009 season. Red Tape Theatre Company will be producing Lope de Vega’s The Dog in the Manger in October 2008 and Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People in May 2009.
Red Tape has long been interested in writing our own work and will be taking our first step this season by creating original adaptations of both plays. At present I’m happily buried in books about the Spanish Golden Age and the rise of the Inquisition. We must gain a greater understanding of de Vega’s time to find the play’s connections to our own. Members of the company, and some special guests, will be asked to write on our blog as the adaptation process continues. We look forward to sharing our findings with you!
Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge
For more information on our season visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/
After reading hundreds of plays, narrowing down to a list of 15, then tossing the list out and starting from scratch, we are pleased to announce our 2008-2009 season. Red Tape Theatre Company will be producing Lope de Vega’s The Dog in the Manger in October 2008 and Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People in May 2009.
Red Tape has long been interested in writing our own work and will be taking our first step this season by creating original adaptations of both plays. At present I’m happily buried in books about the Spanish Golden Age and the rise of the Inquisition. We must gain a greater understanding of de Vega’s time to find the play’s connections to our own. Members of the company, and some special guests, will be asked to write on our blog as the adaptation process continues. We look forward to sharing our findings with you!
Paul G. Miller
Season Dramaturge
For more information on our season visit http://www.redtapetheatre.org/
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