El castigo sin venganza

After its acclaimed reading of El perro del hortelano, the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico (National Company of Classical Theatre) returns to the stage of the Principal. Its director, Helena Pimenta, once again immerses herself in this celebration of word and wit that is Lope de Vega, this time with the twilight tragedy of honour, El castigo sin venganza (Punishment without revenge). A deep reflection on power, justice, responsibility, love and desire, set in the political context of the city-states encountering turbulent Italy at the end of the Quattrocento. The playwright depicts a drama of martial honour, where the characters, trapped in the spider web of a palace of whispers, mirrors and secrets, face their consciousness with an unknown intensity; the beauty of the verse is paired with the brutal roughness of the conflicts and with a delicate, almost cinematic rhythm, in which the scenes intertwine and juxtapose. Bleak, beautiful, masterful, this Lopesco swan song upholds the relentless force of the art of tragedy: a lucid journey into the shadows of ourselves.