THE COURAGE TO RIGHT A WOMAN’S WRONGS (Red Bull Theatre)***

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqVKp1pRUyE&feature=youtu.be

Available until: I think the early hours of 21^st November 2020 if you’re in the UK but probably the afternoon/evening of the 20^th if you’re in the USA.

The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs is an English translation of Ana Caro’s Spanish play Valor, Agravio y Mujer. A direct translation would be Courage, Wrongs and Woman, but the title chosen for this production does tell you a lot more about the play.  

The play was translated by the UCLA Working Group on the Comedia in Translation and Performance and although I’m not familiar with the Spanish version, I think they’ve done brilliantly. The language in this translation sounds really natural and the jokes are very funny.

The play is about a woman who has been jilted by her lover and really isn’t too happy about it. Women in fiction (and men, for that matter, and non-binary people) have dealt with this particular problem in many different ways. Some become severely depressed. Some go off and find someone new. Some chase after the guy and throw themselves at him. (I’ve always been more of a chaser, but we’re all different.)

Leonor in The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs has a different approach. She dresses up as a man and… but I’m not going any further than that. It’ll give too much away, but it’s safe to say she gets herself into situations I really wasn’t expecting. Leonor isn’t a Rosalind in As You Like It. She also isn’t a Leonore in Beethoven’s opera Fidelio (I did wonder whether it was the same story when I saw there was a Leonor and a Don Fernando, but then I saw there was a Don Juan too and that completely threw me! I suppose it’s closest to being a version of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni where Donna Elvira actually has brains? But Leonor is nothing like Donna Elvira really). The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs is its own story and if there is another play, opera or any other kind of story like it, I haven’t seen it.

I think this play is great – if you don’t take it too seriously. For me, it’s a comedy and it’s crazy and as long as you don’t expect the characters to behave sensibly or logically, then you’ll have a great time. In the course of the play, Leonor not only succeeds in convincing people she’s a man (which isn’t so uncommon in fiction), she succeeds in convincing her brother she’s their cousin and her former lover that she’s his current love interest.

I think the play does set out to make some serious points about honour and the strength of women, but I feel that if you think too deeply about this, there are a lot of problems in the plot. There are things that don’t make sense and there are things Leonor does and plans to do which maybe aren’t the most sensible ideas in the world. I would have serious reservations about the levels of deception employed by Leonor – and certainly about her original intention - if I took the play seriously. After all, she feels Don Juan has deceived her in promising to marry her and then disappearing, but she employs much more elaborate deceptions which affect a large number of people. But as a comedy, it’s a lot of fun and Leonor comes across in a much more positive way. So maybe switch your brain off before watching this one.

As usual, the Zoom production has been really well put together. Director Melia Bensussen clearly wants to make it as much like a stage production as possible, so the focus is more on some characters in the scene than others and so it’s very clear who can hear what and who is muttering asides to themselves out of earshot. This is arranged very well with differing sizes of individual Zoom screens, and characters who are together have their screens placed next to each other. In a less complicated story, this wouldn’t be necessary, but in the case of a farce, this kind of thing is really appreciated. I’m not exactly a Zoom expert, but I would guess Zoom creator Betsy Ayer can take a lot of the credit for this.

The cast are really natural together and whatever combination of characters is onscreen, they have a really enjoyable energy and chemistry. Natacia Diaz plays the role of Leonor and she’s confident, quirky, amusing and very likeable in the role. She also shows Leonor’s vulnerability and the fact her task is far from easy. Alfredo Narciso can be a little bit smug, which is only what you’d expect from Don Juan, but his comic timing is faultless and it’s great to see Leonor dance rings around him.

Carson Elrod plays Leonor’s servant Ribete and delivers his asides wonderfully. He also serves as a voice of reason at times – not that Leonor listens to him. Luis Quintero has some great moments as Don Juan’s servant Tormillo - his singing is great and I absolutely love the use of the word ‘harmony’ in a different context a couple of lines after he’s finished his song. Helen Cespedes and Sam Morales are also fun as cousins Estela and Lisarda.

I really enjoyed it a lot, but having read the programme notes, I do kind of wonder if I enjoyed it in the way it was intended to be enjoyed.