‘Phantom Lady’ Romps Into 17th Century Spain With Gusto

In this Jerry Springer culture, the concept of two brothers preserving their widowed sister’s honor by keeping her cloistered from men is rather quaint.

The Bilingual Foundation of the Arts’ production of Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s “The Phantom Lady” (“La Dama Duende”) is a fun romp back to 17th century Madrid.

Spain’s Golden Age playwright supplies plenty of corny humor, sword-swinging, bumbling servants, and mischievous machinations, and this cast attacks the script with eye-rolling gusto.

When she can, Don~a Angela (Sonya Smith) slips away with the help of her servant, Isabel (Rachel Garcia for English-language performances and Azalia Correa for Spanish). Dressed in red finery and masked, she bumps into Don Manuel (Daniel Novoa), who aids her escape from her brother, Don Luis (Antonia Nesme). The smitten Don Manuel believes she is Don Luis’ mistress.

But Don Luis is ardently in love with the same woman whom his brother and Don Manuel’s friend, Don Juan (Jose Ramos), is wooing, Don~a Beatriz (Patricia DeLaunay, who wrote the English translation). Don Juan offers Don Manuel his hospitality, although he doesn’t introduce his sequestered sister, who has her own ideas about getting to know Don Manuel better.

Agustin Coppola’s direction leans toward mugging, but when a play has one character, Eleazar del Valle’s Rodrigo, beg the audience not to throw things in displeasure, it’s not exactly out of place.

*

* “The Phantom Lady” (La Dama Duende), Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, 421 N. Avenue 19, Lincoln Heights. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Languages alternate week to week; this week is Spanish. Ends May 21. (323) 225-4044. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.