Review: Due credit given to Shakespeare contemporary in Spanish Golden Age play

A Lady of Little Sense, one of two plays by Lope de Vega in this trilogy billed as The Spanish Golden Age, brings us a little known work from one of Europe’s greatest playwrights. It is a romantic comedy about reason and the transformative power of love.

Otavio (William Hoyland) has two daughters whom he wishes to see married. Nise (Katie Lightfoot) is admired for her learning but is somewhat aloof. Her problem is that she can’t abide fools, and there are plenty of those around. Her sister Finea (Frances McNamee) is one of those fools, whose spectacular verbal and visual puns actually mask a sharp and subversive wit. For all her learning, Nise lacks that thing most attractive to a man: money; while Finea, thanks to legacy, has plenty of it.

Enter the suitors, hapless Liseo (Simon Scardifield) and the nakedly ambitious Laurencio (Nick Barber) who, seeking a little more than mere cash in their future brides, can’t make up their minds who to love. Mix in some further disruption from the servants, and some less than wise counsel from the elders, all played with gleeful relish by a cast and a director (Laurence Boswell) on top form, and you have a wonderful evening of comedy with a bit of an edge.

Lope de Vega, a contemporary of Shakespeare, is too little known to the general public, and this production does much to give him credit. Frances McNamee’s performance alone would make the price of a ticket worthwhile.

Nick Le Mesurier