Murder, Love and Betrayal: Revisiting Inés de Castro in 21st Century Theatre (Ignacio García and Ana Zamora)

Abstract

This paper analyzes two performances of the myth of Galician Inés de Castro, a queen murdered and crowned post-portem by her husband, Pedro de Portugal. After a review of the literary coordinates of this revisitation, a comparison and contrast is made between two approaches made by Ana Zamora and Ignacio García (2019). The former (Nao d amores´s Nise) works through Jerónimo Bermúdez´s Nise lastimosa and Nise laureada, the latter stages Reinar después de morir/Reinar depois de morrer by Luis Vélez de Guevara. The figure of the queen serves to stage obsessions of medieval and contemporary societies. The problematic representation of an act of violence to a woman onstage is presented by two contrasting approaches: Baroque, bloody and sublime and Romanesque, neutral and yet transcendent.