Directed by Lluís Pasqual — Théâtre de l’Odéon (until December 30, 1992)
The following choice is yours: either listen to the critics — professional and well-informed, nostalgic for Avignon, who judge, compare, analyze… or go to the Odéon and let yourself be swept up in the emotion of this drama of the Spanish Golden Age.
In two hours (the play’s action unfolds over three days), you will in turn fall madly in love, scheme with the help of an enigmatic procuress and a faithful, mischievous valet, then — a solitary hidalgo in the night — fall into an ambush, hemmed in and dragged inexorably toward death, like the bull in the arena.
Zéno Bianu, translator of this Romancero, drew a “portrait chinois” of the Knight from Olmedo:
“If he were a feeling? amort*… If he were two adjectives? Frivolous and grandiose…
If he were a film? Somewhere between To Be or Not to Be and La Nuit du Chasseur (The Night of the Hunter).
If he were a line of Góngora? ‘All happiness flees me and misfortune lingers’…
If he were a subject of study? Providence and Fate…”
Providence and Fate: there indeed are two notions familiar to us. They are our intimate friends. Let us not forget that the protector of our heroes, the “noble King Philip,” was a great purveyor of the Inquisition. Does he not announce, during the festivities of the second day, his decision to impose a distinctive sign upon Jews and Muslims? The literature and theater of the Siglo de Oro (the Golden Age), from Cervantes to Calderón, are constantly shot through with such allusions, voiced in a falsely detached tone.
El Caballero de Olmedo (The Knight from Olmedo) was part of the repertoire of La Barraca, the traveling troupe of Federico García Lorca. In France, Albert Camus adapted the play and brought it to the stage in 1957.
* N.B.: “amort” is indeed the word chosen by the translator.