One of the great things about theatre in London is the myriad of small spaces where independent productions are performed. One such place is the CLF Arts Centre in Peckham where Daniel Goldman’s Tangram company staged a ‘rapturous re-interpretation of one of Spain’s classics’, FUENTEOVEJUNA in the heat of the summer of 2013. Written in 1619 by the country’s most celebrated playwright of the time, Lope de Vega it is based on a true chronicle of a small village by the same name that is oppressed by an evil Comendador. On entering the theatre the audience immediately becomes part of the town as its ‘new members.’

My wife and I joined the membership one sunny Sunday afternoon. Playing the mayor’s daughter and resisting the tyrant’s advances was the accomplished Hannah Boyde, who’s theatre credits includes the National’s WAR HORSE. I drew this sketch of her in the role at the time, which she actually signed a year later when she appeared in Daniel’s production of THE DRAGON at the Southwark Playhouse, this time playing a Mayor.