Review: Marin Shakespeare’s Spanish Tragedy is a ‘Treasured Jewel’

By Karen Pierce Gonzalez 

The Marin Shakespeare Company’s 2013 season opener Spanish Tragedy, or was so well written and performed that it, in fact, can teach us all a lesson on passion, revenge, and rage. Written by Thomas Kyd during the Elizabethan Era, it became highly popular and influential. Later, it was even attributed as the catalyst for English theatre’s new genre- revenge tragedy. 

The plot of the play dances through an attempted alliance between Spain and Portugal, haunting ghosts, murder, love, and it all culminates in a dramatic end with a play-within-a play.

The theme of revenge was a very controversial in Elizabethan times. For many Christians they believed that revenge against wrong doers was God’s responsibility, not the responsibility of men or women. Thus, Elizabethans were both fascinated and a little frightened when it was presented on stage. One of the strongest examples is in The Spanish Tragedy when the hero Hieronimo must employ deception and ruse to achieve his ends.

The Spanish Tragedy or Hieronio is Mad Again was referred to or parodied by many famous writers such as William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe. Jonson mentions the character “Hieronimo” in the Induction to Cynthia’s Revels.  It was also thought to have influenced two of Shakespeare’s well-known works, Titus Andronicus and Hamlet, both stories aroused by revenge and murder. Even more recently, T.S. Eliot quoted the title and the play in his poem The Waste Land.

Surprisingly, this play is rarely preformed. Why? It’s just one of those treasured jewels and therefore it is very special when it’s done and done beautifully.  If you don’t want to miss out on the action, Marin Shakespeare Company is taking on the tragedy in their outdoor summer series. 

Directed by the talented Lesley Currier, The Spanish Tragedy opens Friday, July 12, 2013.

For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit the Marin Shakespeare Company website.