BWW Reviews: Cervantes Lives! In Teatro de la Abadia's ENTREMESES

Just when you think that the Iberian Suite festival at the Kennedy Center is all about high art, we get an evening of good old, down-and-dirty comic sketches penned by none other than the master of Spanish satire, Cervantes. The evening of Entremeses (Interludes), performed by Madrid's Teatro de La Abadía in the Terrace Theatre, was low comedy raised to the level of high art. A joyous mix of bawdy, physical humor and finely-tuned acting, these Entremeses are a welcome break from the serious stuff we're used to downstairs.

Entremeses, for those not familiar with them, were short comic plays designed to break the monotony of long trips to the theatre in Spain's Golden Age. Back in the 1500's and 1600's, theatre performances were an all-day affair that demanded a tremendous amount of patience; you had to have a little variety in the day's fare if you wanted to survive it. So the great, ponderous epics and tragedies - ostensibly the main attraction-were interrupted at key points by comic 'interludes' which allowed the audience to step out for drink, relax, or flirt with the ladies who in those days were seated in an upstairs gallery (the infamous cazuela, or "stew-pot").

Cervantes knew his theatre well, and had sharpened his pen on the hypocrisies and idiocies of his time; his novel Don Quixote (soon to get the Broadway treatment elsewhere in DC, in Man of la Mancha) has endured down through the centuries because of his insight into the human condition; and in these plays our craven desires and lusts, our utter foolishness, are there for all to see. The Entremeses were yet another opportunity for Cervantes to throw the mirror up to Spanish society, and puncture every pretense they had.

True to their roots in Italian Commedia dell' Arte, two of the Entremeses here-The Cave of Salamanca and The Jealous Old Man-focus on the traditional theme of arranged marriages between young beauties and rich but ancient fossils (er, men). Marriages like this inevitably resulted in the wife, out of sheer boredom, arranging an affair with some nice young man down the block. Italian and Spanish companies knew that sex farce was a big seller, not least because half the audience happened to be stuck in this very situation themselves.

(Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of Washington's trophy wives in the audience were making a few mental notes themselves ...)

The key to a good old sex farce was an intricate plot, and they were much funnier if the young wife got her kicks right under her aged husband's nose - or, even more wickedly, within earshot. One highlight here is when two enterprising adulterors (one for the wife, one for her maid-servant, very democratic) are forced to dress as demons to distract the man of the house upon his (unexpected) return. These adultery-themed shows would get revived with a vengeance in England in later years, and notorious Restoration comedies like Wycherley's The Country Wife owe a huge debt to the genius of writers like Cervantes.

Teatre de La Abadía 's company has developed a priceless ensemble, steeped in Commedia but with their own unique house style. They fill the theatre, literally, with life and sound, and the addition of musicians and sound-effects men to enhance the action makes their work truly enjoyable. The late Jose Hernandez's set evokes a sleepy Spanish village with a lone tree that marks the village square where gossips meet, men talk trash and traveling players perform in the noon-day shade. Maria Luisa Engel's period costumes evoke the Golden Age nicely enough, and she clearly has fun with the "demon" disguises that the adulterous men are forced to wear in The Cave of Salamanca.

But it was never just fun and games for Cervantes; in the final piece of the evening, The Marvelous Show of Figures, he openly attacks Spanish society for its anti-Semitism. Prior to this time Spain had lived for 800 years under the Cordoba Caliphate; for centuries Catholics, Jews and Muslims had lived as neighbors and intermarried. The Catholic Reconquista ('reconquest') destroyed every shred of that good will, and everyone suddenly donned haloes and claimed on a stack of bibles to be pure-blooded Christians. (Yeah, right.)

Cervantes' response to this idiocy was to create two con artists who come to a village and promise to create a grand spectacle which only those with pure Catholic blood would be able to see. The villagers, fearful of the consequences if they say no, invite the hucksters to perform-with predictable results. They can't see a thing, of course, which only makes them more desperate to claim they can see everything, right down to the last absurd detail. (After seeing this brilliant piece of political satire, I can't help thinking that Hans Christian Anderson had The Marvelous Show of Figures on his desk when he set out to write his famous children's story, The Emperor's New Clothes.)

Teatro de la Abadía has given us a memorable evening, and by preserving the Spanish classics they have shown how contemporary Cervantes' work continues to be. Originally created twenty years ago under the direction of José Luis Gómez, these Entremeses continue to leave audiences rolling

Production photo (uncredited): Miguel Cubero (center) in The Cave of Salamanca.

Performances for the Iberian Suite: Global Arts Remix take place March3-24 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. For tickets and more information, visit:

http://www.kennedy-center.org/iberia