Abstract

This article studies the scenography designed by José Manuel Castanheira for El alcalde de Zalamea (2000) by Calderón de la Barca, a play by the National Classical Theatre Company directed by Sergi Belbel. The scenography has been conceived as a micro geography, inspired in Zalamea’s orography, with a strong pictorial component which defines every scenic design of Castanheira. This play is compared to its antecedent, El alcalde de Zalamea (1988) directed by José Luis Alonso Mañes, and with the two later versions directed by Eduardo Vasco in the 2010 and Helena Pimenta in the 2015 which contributed to consolidate Castanheira’s scenography as one of the most original and controversial play in the history of the National Classical Theatre Company. 

Abstract

Calderón de la Barca’s La hidalga del valle is an auto sacramental, or allegorical religious play, written in defense of the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The playwright made two versions of the play, one to be performed in carts (carros) during the Corpus party and another for the stage. The latter, which took place in Granada in 1640, is the fi rst attested performance, within the immaculist celebrations on account of an infamous libel against Mary’s virginity. The present article aims to analyze its thematic singularity, the details of its staging, the general scenography of the performance space, as well as the specific historical-religious circumstances that gave it full meaning as a theatrical text of a genre conceived for the exaltation of the faith and, in this case, for the dogmatic instruction on the immaculate conception of the Virgin, one of the most controversial dogmas in the history of the Church.