The Dog in the Manger

The Distcos braced themselves for a challenging night last week. The Shakespeare Theatre Company--staging The Dog in the Manger by Lope de Vega. That is, Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, contemporary of ol' Bill Shakespeare himself.

Yikes, right? Shakespeare can be tough enough. Sixteenth-Century dialogue, Sixteenth-Century plots. But now take away the Shakespeare, and what's left? Suffice it to say, Mr. Distco was preparing for the stage equivalent of sitting through a night of Salieri. Sabes?

But soft! What sounds from yonder stage breaks? Modern English! Turns out, when you translate Sixteenth-Century Spanish plays, you can translate them into Twenty-First-Century English! Sweet.

Very entertaining. Slapstick (!) at times (in a mostly good way). And as usual for STC, great performances from the cast.