Many Spanish plays of this period are concerned with duty, honour and loyalty and Peribanez is no exception. It is a celebration of peasant culture, showing the moral integrity of the dutiful peasant. Its tale of an overlord, the Commander (David Harewood) who threatens to take as his mistress the beautiful Casilda (Jackie Morrison) wife of a peasant farmer Peribanez (Michael Nardone) after the Commander is gored by a bull and carried to their home.
This black comedy exploits the most vicious company culture of corporate condoned bullying. The night I saw it there was no cheering or booing from the audience, just sharp intakes of shocked breath at some of the cruelest comments and laughter from others.
The performances are all good but Delroy Lindo's inspirational, sympathetic old visionary and healer and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's haunted Herald Loomis stand out as mesmerising. David Lan's intelligent production will make you think about the damage done by those years' of uprooting and slavery to the psyche of the African American.