Theatre
Down the Gully
Barranca abajo
Florencio Sánchez · 1905
Synopsis
Don Zoilo, the old master of an estancia, has lost his lands at the end of a lawsuit conducted by lawyers from the city. He stays on the estate only because the new owner, Juan Luis, has become involved with his daughter Prudencia; when he learns of it, he refuses this charity and takes his family to a small farm. The women of his household resent him and drift away from him; only his youngest daughter, Robustiana, who is ill, and the faithful Aniceto remain with him. Arrested on a false accusation, he sees what remained to him slip away.
Context
Written in Montevideo, the play was first performed on 26 April 1905 at the Apolo theatre in Buenos Aires by the Podestá company; the author sold it to José J. Podestá, and the money allowed him to buy a house in Banfield. As the director feared that the public would not accept the ending, the author revised it from the second performance. One study compares the play to King Lear, which the actor Ermete Zacconi, a friend of the author, had played in South America in 1904. It was translated into French by Max Daireaux in 1939, into English by Willis Knapp Jones in 1961.
Who it is for
A tragedy in three acts, in Spanish, written in the language of the countryside; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's major work and his best-known tragedy, it has stayed in the repertoire; its hero has been called the “King Lear of the pampas”.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.