Introduction by Nicholas Dromgoole.

Both plays are highly charged emotional works, full of Lope de Vega's vitality. This adaptation of Fuente Ovejuna was performed in Declan Donnellan's directorial debut at the Royal National Theatre.

Lope de Vega (1562-1635), acknowledged as Spain's most lyrical and energetic dramatist, was a prolific and complusive writer. He treated an enormous range of subjects, often mingling comedy with tragedy, to the horror of the classicists, and defended his methods in his 'Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempe', published in 1609.