We live in an age of tyrants…again. Cruel men of power who are filled with greed and a twisted need to oppress. They force their dogma on innocent communities. They bring a twisted sense of patriarchy and misogyny to the innocent and keep communities in a permanent state of fear. They are protected and enabled by privilege and force. This protection often comes in the form of leaders and heads of state who share the same outdated ideology. The current US president, his enablers and ICE are a perfect real-world examples of this.

Lope De Vega had men like this in his world as well, and although he was no angel, he still found a way to tell the story of standing up to this kind of abuse. Often in classical stories we see resistance in the form of woman standing up to patriarchy (Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Euripides’s Medea, Kriemhild in The Nibelungenlied) Laurencia in Fuente Ovejuna is no different. She sees what is happening and tries to navigate it until circumstances push her to the brink and she chooses to fight back, as so many of us do.

The men of the village of Fuente Ovejuna are kind, caring and focused on an agrarian life. They aren’t warriors or soldiers. They are farmers and shepherds, who live a good simple life and want nothing but peace. They are sheep. It takes the woman in town to mobilize and decide the fate of the village. So often I see women leading the charge, doing what’s right, making the hard choices and standing up for more than just themselves. This is one of the many reasons why this play has resonated with me for more than two decades. 

I have had the great joy of collaborating with so many women in my life and they inspire me at every turn. From my family to my colleagues I have experienced so much creativity, passion for life, love, care and inspiration. To know the struggles they still face on a day-to-day basis from wage disparity to casual misogyny, from the male gaze to sexual violence and yet they still show up every day. This has shown me that they have great potential to be warriors in the truest sense. This play is about standing up to tyranny and in this age of patriarchy, I say let’s unshackle from that outdated, useless model and instead make room at the table for everyone.

PJ Escobio

9/29/2026