Maria Fornes seems to want to give the reader a very minimal amount of the lives of the characters and what's happening to them. She has to make a lot of choices about what to include or exclude in order to still tell the story fully.
A choice that I found puzzling was why she chose to have scenes focused around Olimpia rather than giving more back story for seemingly more important characters like Orlando or Leticia. Why was it so important to have Olimpia there, and to dedicate quite a bit of the play to her and what she has to say?
Of course, an obvious answer would be that is somewhat comedic relief to ease the extreme tension created in scenes that include rape and old men keeping young girls in their basement. But in class someone brought up a really great point that I had never even considered. Olimpia is Nina's voice. Without the scene between Olimpia and Nina we would have absolutely no background on the young girl. Because even though Leticia says she would jump in front of a bullet for a deer, she isn't willing to do so for Nina and after realizing she's in the basement doesn't do anything. Olimpia is the only one who cares, or is lonely enough to question and listen to Nina.
So Olimpia helps with the tension of the play and she also allows the reader to learn about Nina. Olimpia was my favorite character in this show. At first, probably because she is the only innocent person, other then Nina, and she is comedic. Now I love her more, because I realize that she is really the only thing Nina has in the world now and she, I think, wants to sort of protect her from everything. I like to think Olimpia either told on Leticia for shooting Orlando or she took the blame herself so Nina wouldn't have to.
I agree that I feel like Olimpia is supplying a voice to Nina. Although both two separate characters with different situations, they both can be relatable unlike any of the other characters. I think Fletcher did end up establishing that Olimpia could well be playing dumb and just quieting collecting all the information she finds out from this family. She is aware of Nina when Leticia does not know of her existence. I think though the only reason she is comedic aside from the writer choosing to make her that way is because who wouldn't want to try to find something happy to live for while living in a place like that? I felt also the silliness was also contributed thanks to Leticia for her immaturity too.
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