Lope de Vega makes Shakespeare look like a slacker. The Spanish Golden Age playwright, two years Shakespeare's senior, claimed to have written over 1,000 plays, and at least 400 survive. They are very much in vogue. No sooner has the RSC triumphed with the 1613 comedy Dog in the Manger than the Watermill gets in on the act with this play, dating from a dozen years later. It is very much a class act.
Reviewing Dog in a Manger last week, Michael Billington described it as: "The Duchess of Malfi played for laughs." The Gentleman from Olmedo is Romeo and Juliet with bullfighting. It also has more humour than Shakespeare's tragedy, and, in Jonathan Munby's production, the streaks of light and dark, laughter and desolation are played to perfection. Eerie songs of doom mingle with songs of celebration; poppy petal confetti adorns the stage, which later in the performance seems like globules of blood.
Like much of De Vega's work, the play turns on intrigue and honour as Ines, the daughter of a local nobleman, falls for Alonso from a neighbouring town. Unfortunately for love's young dream, Ines already has a local suitor, Rodrigo, and passions are soon running high, not just because of wounded hearts but because a visit from the king ups the political tension and competition between the nobles from the rivals' towns.
This is one of those plays where you know what is going to happen right from the opening moments, but Munby keeps the tension tight, and David Johnston's splendid translation ensures there is much enjoyment to be had along the way.
The stage is so tiny here, the experience of the drama so intimate that any fakery in the performances is easily spotted. This ensemble plays as straight and true as a lethal bullet.
· Until May 22. Box office: 01635 46044.
