Entertainment Central Pittsburgh – Pity the fool who thinks there isn’t much live theater in August and figures that the few shows presented will all be bubblehead stuff. Mr. T will not whup the fool’s butt, but the fool will miss a lot of good, substantial theater.
PERIBÁÑEZ by Lope de Vega. Aug. 5-28, Quantum Theatre.
What? The man wrote more than a thousand plays and you haven’t seen a single one? Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (1562-1635) was known in Spain as “monstruo de la naturaleza”: a freak or force of nature. Along with serving two tours in the Spanish navy and engaging in many scandalous love affairs—even after he entered the priesthood at age 51—Lope de Vega turned out prodigious flows of new material for theaters of the time. About 450 of his plays survive, many still considered masterpieces, bristling with energy and deftly mixing humor with serious themes. Lope de Vega’s work is seldom produced in English translation, but last year Pitt’s Department of Theatre Arts did his romantic comedy The Dog in the Manger, and now Quantum Theatre is staging Peribáñez, a tragicomedy in which an army commander schemes to seduce a peasant’s wife. Quantum is performing Peribáñez in a modern adaptation by British playwright Tanya Ronder. The venue is one of Quantum’s favorite outdoor sites, the Jennie King Mellon Rose Garden in Mellon Park, corner of Fifth Avenue and Beechwood Boulevard, Shadyside…
