• Overview
• Staging information
• Translations
• Sample translations
• Production history

Scene

• The action takes place over a period of nine hours between 22:30 and 07:30. Act 1 takes place in Dionisio’s hotel room.
• Two hours elapse between act 1 and act 2. Act 2 takes place both in Dionisio’s hotel room and the adjoining room where the troupe of performers are partying.
• The period of time between act 2 and act 3 is a matter of minutes, as Dionisio opens the door of his hotel room to his future father-in-law, Don Sacramento. Act 3 takes place in Dionisio’s room as he prepares to leave for his wedding.

Staging

General

Two doors lead from Dionisio’s hotel room – which is where the majority of the action takes place. One door leads to another room in which Paula and the troupe are partying. The other leads to the outside world to which Dionisio will eventually be forced to return.

Dionisio’s hotel room is described as being that befitting a ‘second-rate’ hotel. In the room there is a bed, a wardrobe with a mirror, a folding dresser screen, a night table with a lamp and a telephone. There is also a washbasin on a little table beside the wardrobe. Curtains lead to a balcony.

Specific props/costume

• Three top hats are required. These are carried in hat boxes.
• Dionisio needs a telephone to speak to his fiancée, Margarita.
• The Keen Hunter is described as having four rabbits hanging from his belt with price tags on them.
• Near the end of act 2, the Keen Hunter is accompanied by four dogs, preferably barking.
• Buby carries and plays a ukulele.
• The partygoers drink alcohol from bottles.
• The Hateful Señor wears a bowler hat.
• The Old Soldier wears a uniform covered in medals.
• In his attempt to seduce Paula in act 2, the Hateful Señor gives her the following gifts: a blue garter; silk stockings; sweets; flowers; a ham sandwich; a rattle.
• Don Sacramento wears a top hat.
• When Dionisio prepares for bed he gets changed into black silk pyjamas with a white bird embroidered on the chest.
• Buby is described as being a black man, but he is portrayed in many productions by a white actor deliberately blacked-up with make-up and wearing white gloves.
• At the end of the play, Dionisio leaves for his wedding. He is accompanied to his white carriage by ‘well-wishers’: the servants throw breadcrumbs, the maids throw confetti and the cook throws a hen.

Music

Music plays a significant role in Tres sombreros de copa. It is used to distinguish between the two worlds presented in the play – namely bourgeois respectability and itinerant frivolity as embodied by Dionisio and Paula respectively. Characters are defined by different musical motifs. For example, Dionisio is accompanied at several points by the cornet music of Don Rosario. Paula confesses a love of dancing to gramophone music (Mihura himself called the play a ‘comedy of girls who love gramophone music’). The black manager of the troupe of dancing girls, Buby Barton, plays a ukulele and sings songs from the American slave plantations. Examples of the sort of music that might accompany a performance are available by clicking on the Miguel Mihura page of the educational Materiales de la Lengua y Literatura Spanish website.

Near the end of act 1 Don Rosario plays Toselli’s Serenade – sometimes called the Rimpianto (Op.6 No.1) – on his cornet. This piece, written by the Italian composer Enrico Toselli (1883-1926), was a romantic favourite during the 1920s and 1930s.

Dionisio mentions in act 1 that he can whistle Marina, which seems to allude to a popular Spanish folk opera from 1855 written by Pascual Emilio Arrieta.

Songs and dancing form an integral part of act 2 as the circus performers dance to music such as the Charleston. At the start of this act an unseen gramophone plays a traditional-style French dancing-song, performed on an accordion. Later in act 2 some of the guests are heard singing parts of El relicario (The Locket), a popular early twentieth-century Spanish love song composed by José Padilla. At another point in this act a man under Dionisio’s bed is heard singing part of a popular bullfighting song, Marcial, (tú) eres el más grande (Marcial, You are the Greatest). This is a song about the famous bullfighter Marcial Lalanda (1903-90), written by the Spanish military composer Martín Domingo (1887-1961). Later, the guests are heard singing some bars of the Russian folksong, Song of The Volga Boatmen.

In act 3 Don Rosario once again plays his cornet. He plays a military march to accompany Dionisio’s departure from the hotel towards his wedding.

Cast number

Minimum	Maximum
10 males	10 males
6 females	6 females
16 (total)	16 (total)

Cast information

At the beginning of act 2, directions indicate that the more people who are on stage the better. Act 2 opens on the party taking place in the room beside Dionisio’s and also in his own room. Directions mention that an experienced old sailor is present, as well as an Arab or an Indian. Other elderly partygoers are present as well. It is left to the discretion of directors to decide how many extra characters appear on stage.

Characters

• PAULA, Attractive blonde 18-year-old member of the troupe of performers
• FANNY, Dancing girl
• MADAME OLGA, Bearded woman from the troupe of performers
• SAGRA, Dancing girl
• TRUDY, Dancing girl
• CARMELA, Dancing girl
• DIONISIO, Young bachelor
• BUBY BARTON, Black manager of the dancing troupe who carries a ukulele
• DON ROSARIO, Elderly owner of the hotel with a white beard
• DON SACRAMENTO, Dionisio’s future father-in-law who wears a top hat
• THE HATEFUL SEÑOR, One of the partygoers wearing a bowler hat.
• THE OLD SOLDIER, Completely bald with a uniform decorated with medals
• THE KEEN HUNTER, Four rabbits hang from his belt with price tags on them
• THE HOPELESS ROMANTIC, One of the partygoers
• THE HANDSOME BOY, One of the partygoers
• THE HAPPY EXPLORER, One of the partygoers

Entry written by Gwynneth Dowling. Last updated on 13 November 2010.

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