Madness in Valencia

Synopsis

A comedy that reflects on how bewildering, yet utterly pleasurable, love can be. Floriano has killed the Prince of Spain and fled, the army on his heels. Erifila has run away from her father to escape an abhorrent arranged marriage. Fearing for their lives they are forced to feign madness to hide in Valencia’s famed asylum, only to become entangled in an hilarious game of love, lust, madness and mistaken identity.

Our Review:

12 February 2010

Madness in Valencia, by the classic Spanish writer Lope de Vega, opens at the Trafalgar Studios following a successful run at the White Bear last year. The new venue, in its former incarnation as the Whitehall Theatre, was synonymous with British farce. The play follows in that comic tradition with larger than life characters who spend much of the play in their underwear pretending to be someone else, and a plot with more flourishes and turns than a flamenco dancer.

The play begins with Floriano (an excellent performance from William Belchambers), bursting noisily onto the stage and into the city of Valencia. He is on the run having murdered a nobleman. His best friend Valerio finds him refuge in the city’s asylum. There he meets Erifila (Kathryn Beaumont), a noblewoman who has been robbed of all her belongings - and a significant amount of her clothing - and proclaimed mad. Both pretending to be mad, they fall in love and discover that each is in fact sane.

I...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

David Baxter - 26 February 2010:

Look up romp in a theatrical dictionary and there should be an entry for Madness in Valencia. An utterly bonkers plot involves almost every character attempting to get locked up in an asylum in pursuit of love. A young cast tackle an updated script with exuberance, crashing down the fourth wall and even coming up with an alternative ending. Kathryn Beaumont is a spirited Erifila and also serves as Associate Producer - whatever that entails, but she is clearly a name to keep an eye on. I have been laid up with a bad back all week and have now started a filthy cold (aah!) but Madness in Valencia succeeded in raising my spirits for a boisterous couple of hours....

Read more and add your own review