The Dog in the Manger - Spanish Golden Age Season

Synopsis

1613 social comedy about a countess who compromises her honour. Set in Naples, in the court of Diana, Countess of Belfor. Diana is a beautiful and headstrong young woman who is beset by aristocratic suitors urging marriage upon her. Diana refuses all advances. One night, she discovers her handsome young secretary making love to her favourite lady in waiting and is consumed with jealousy. A heartbreaking love triangle is forged and so begins a tale of forbidden love, envy and passion.

Our Review:

2 February 2005

The set for the RSC’s Dog in the Manger looks anything but portable. And yet, with its gilded floor and vertical doors, it fits perfectly into its new home at the West End's Playhouse Theatre, where it has arrived via Stratford, Newcastle and Madrid. And in its shiny opulent surface Es Devlin has created the perfect metaphor to reflect the world of Lope de Vega’s play. It’s a world where status and appearances are everything.

We find ourselves in the morally tight-laced home of Diana, who is feared by her servants and cold as ice. That is, until she discovers her secretary Teodoro and one of her ladies in waiting, Marcela, are courting. This knowledge acts as a catalyst to fire Diana’s passions and transform her into the Dog in the Manger of the title – her love is a riddle of contradictions, a battle between her heart and her head.

Teodoro’s love being opportunistic, he realises he can only stand to gain from such an alliance. But Diana knows a...

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Latest User Review

81.134.70.31) - 7 February 2005:

I posted a review after I saw this in Stratford last September. Can we add those from the archive, please? Suffice to say it's an absolute gem - very very funny and not to be missed....

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