The Corral Cervantes Festival presents a theater banquet of the Golden Age

2023-10-24 18:59:13

With the representation of ‘Sancho in Barataria‘, a production by the Azar Teatro company based on the episode of Don Quixote, the curtain has been raised on the VII Corral Cervantes Festival, organized by the Siglo de Oro Foundation and which, for the second year, has its headquarters in the Corral Cervantes, the space built on Paseo de la Chopera, next to Matadero, in imitation of the comedy corrals of our Golden Age (thirty-four tons of straw were used for its construction) and with the example of the Globe Theater in London.

The VII edition of the Fiesta Corral Cervantes Festival will take place from October 24 to December 17. Fifty functions will be presented twenty different showscreated by eighteen companies from seven autonomous communities (Castilla y León, Madrid, Andalusia, Asturias, Castilla-La Mancha, Canary Islands, Valencia) and one international (Italy).

«The greatest aim of the festival and of the Corral itself – says Rodrigo Arribas, its artistic and production director – is to continue promoting the construction of a production fabric of the Golden Age. The companies that work on this repertoire, and that dedicate themselves to it by will and vocation, are heavily penalized in terms of exhibition, and without spaces to present themselves, it is impossible for them to invest in their own productions, which has an impact on quality. There is a terrible deprofessionalization, and we try to modestly offer our space to these companies for these companies. The corral is open 330 days a year and schedules its own shows, but they also create an increasing possibility of more companies coming.”

In addition to ‘Sancho en Barataria’, the festival will present two of the pieces from the Siglo de Oro Foundation’s repertoire: ‘The dumb lady‘ y ‘The manger dog‘. The program also includes ‘The Colloquium of the Dogs’, by Cervantes (La Cubería); ‘El día de la Serrana’, a version of ‘La serrana de la Vera’ by Luis Vélez de Guevara (Aumentos Studio); ‘Francisco Hernández, journey and testament’ (El Hatillo); ‘Beyond the romances’ (There we go!); ‘Bojiganga’ (Crow Theatre); ‘Lives. Musical epilogue’ (Ensamble Bufo); ‘God save you comic!’, a show based on texts by Lope, Tirso, Cervantes, Quevedo, Calderón, Feliciana Enríquez de Guzmán, Santa Teresa de Jesús, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Umbra Teatro); ‘The farce of the Golden Age’ (Timaginas Teatro); ‘Loyalty in friendship’, based on ‘Betrayal in friendship’, by María de Zayas y Sotomayor; and ‘The moldy graces’, by Feliciana Enríquez de Guzmán (Alpi Teatre).

Rodrigo Arribas highlights the contest ‘ArganzuelOROS‘, which takes place on Sunday afternoons, and which wants to open “a space for new playwrights, directors, companies and creators to contribute new points of view on the Golden Age.” Five shows are presented, and this year the jury will be made up of loyal spectators of the Corral Cervantes who have requested to participate in this proposal.

“Every time we see how companies are more aware of what they are doing, they are more daring,” says Arribas. Young people are beginning to bet on this repertoire and there is beginning to be a common language, a starting point in which great professionals such as Vicente Fuentes o Ernesto Arias. “It starts from a principle common to all that allows people to no longer have to climb the first three floors again, but rather people leave the fourth floor.”