Cast TBD
The Spanish Tragedy
April 11 - 21, 2024
Wildcard Wednesday (VU Community Only): April 10
Opening Night: April 11 | Speaker's Series: April 14 | Drinks with the Dramaturg:April 19
RUN TIME: two and a half hours, one intermission.
All Performances at 8pm except Sunday 2pm
by Thomas Kyd
directed by Chelsea Phillips and Alice Dailey
Before Game of Thrones, before Kill Bill, before Carrie – even before Hamlet – there was The Spanish Tragedy, the great-granddaddy of modern revenge tales. Deprived of justice for the murder of his son, the loyal courtier Hieronimo abandons legal redress and, joined by the canny and resolute Bel-Imperia, sets out to seek blood for blood. With its intricate plotting and bold theatricality, Thomas Kyd’s timeless tragedy speaks to our present moment with its unflinching look at judicial inequity, legacies of violence and the all-too-persistent seduction of vengeance.
The Spanish Tragedy Symposium | April 19-20
In academic year 2023-24, Villanova University faculty Dr. Chelsea Phillips (Theater) and Dr. Alice Dailey (English) launched a year-long interdisciplinary exploration of Thomas Kyd’s seminal Renaissance revenge play, The Spanish Tragedy (1582). This extended pedagogical, scholarly, and creative endeavor began with a combined undergraduate-graduate course taught in fall 2023 titled “Legacies of Revenge.” It culminates in our production of The Spanish Tragedy, along with a coinciding scholarly symposium on April 19-20, 2024. The Spanish Tragedy Project seeks to foster engagement with the play as at once an historical and contemporary artifact and to deepen our understanding of the play’s place in revenge discourses, which continue to proliferate in popular culture. Learn more and register here.
Content Guide
If you want to learn more about the content of this show, please click below for specific content alerts. If you have further questions, contact the box office.
Content warnings "are verbal or written notices that precede potentially sensitive content." Content warnings differ from spoilers because they don’t explain plot or context. Similarly to a rating on a movie or TV show, content warnings give the audience a heads up about potentially triggering topics in the performance. We hope that providing the following content warnings will equip our audiences with the tools they need to engage with the performance in a meaningful and fulfilling way.
Like all good art, theatre asks audiences to engage with universal questions on a personal, sometimes challenging level. At the same time, please do note that there is a difference between trauma and discomfort. Without the latter, we can narrow and limit our experiences in ways detrimental to ourselves as individuals and as members of this community. Please use your best judgment and exercise self-care as needed.
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