("La Consulesa") by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero
English version by Helen Granville-Barker and Harley Granville-Barker
Catherine Lacey in...
It is always pleasant to dip into the lazy latitudes of Iberia with those sentiment Spaniards, the Quintero brothers, although their engaging little works (affectionately translated by the Granville-Barkers) are infrequently performed on our stages. "The Lady from Alfaqueque" is a typical trifle from their repertoire, suffused with the gentle charm and sunny romanticism which are the hallmarks of their wares.
Fernandita is a lady who has lived in Madrid for twenty years, but whose heart will always belong to the litte Andalusian town where she was born and brought up. She lives happily enough with her husband in the capital, but we suspect it is only because she bas taken care to surround herself with so many mementoes of home.
"I sometimes think," she will say, "that Heaven must be very like Alfaqueque," and she plainly believes it to be inhabited by angels. But a surprising number of the angels leave their heaven for Madrid and find their way to her apartments where, to the mild exasperation of her husband, she offers trusting hospitality to all who cross her threshold with the magic name of Alfaqueque on their lips. It seems almost inevitable that some day her trust must be betrayed. (Kenneth A. Hurren)