Theatre
Ña Catita
Not translated into English
Manuel Ascencio Segura · 1845
Synopsis
Doña Rufina, more ambitious than wealthy, wants to marry her daughter Juliana to don Alejo, a suitor who affects the fortune and manners of Europe. Juliana loves Manuel, a modest and honest young man, and finds support in Mercedes, the servant, who is faithful and mocking. Going back and forth between mother and daughter is Ña Catita, a devout old woman, widowed several times, who has become Rufina's flattering confidante and whose gossip stirs up discord between Rufina and her husband, don Jesús, who has no authority over his wife.
Context
The first version, in three acts, was premiered in Lima on 24 January 1845. The author reworked it into four acts and revived it on 30 August 1856 at the Variedades theatre, where the actress Encarnación Coya made it a great success; the four-act text appeared in 1858 in the collection of his plays. Critics see in the scheming old woman a Creole Celestina and compare her to Molière's Tartuffe; Ricardo Palma defended the author against those who judged his language vulgar, full of sayings and words from the street.
Who it is for
Four acts in verse, mostly octosyllables arranged in redondillas, in the Spanish spoken in Lima; the whole action takes place in one house.
Prizes and reception
For many critics, the emblematic play of Peruvian theatre, and the most popular of its author's seventeen.
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