In Miguel de Cervantes’ 1613 novel “El Coloquio de los Perros,” two dogs discuss their adventures and misfortunes. In adapting the story for the stage, Francisco Negro transforms the animals into men – a ragged gentleman and a beggar whose life is worse than a stray dog’s.

Negro’s Morfeo Teatro theatre company will present the play – whose title translates into “The Dialogue of the Dogs” – in a free community performance at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 in Jemison Auditorium at Ohio Wesleyan University’s Sanborn Hall, 23 Elizabeth St., Delaware.

Negro’s play takes place in the 17th century and was aesthetically inspired by paintings created by El Greco and Diego Velázquez. His adaptation follows the narrative structure and plot of Cervantes’ novel, but is presented as a sequel to the original. In the end, viewers realize that by turning the dogs into men, Negro sought and succeeded in efforts to give a voice to the marginalized.

Negro stars in the production with Morfeo Teatro’s Mayte Bona and Felipe Santiago. The performance will be presented in Spanish and followed by a question-and-answer session. For more information about the play or to see a trailer, visit http://morfeoteatro.com.

Novelist Cervantes, more widely known for “Don Quixote,” is considered by many as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world’s greatest novelists of all time.

The Sept. 23 event is hosted by Ohio Wesleyan’s Department of Modern Foreign Languages and VIVA Latinx, OWU’s Latin-American culture group. It is made possible by a Mellon Foundation Language Grant awarded to Ohio Wesleyan’s Glenda Y. Nieto-Cuebas, Ph.D., and Denison University’s Francisco López-Martín, Ph.D.

For more information, contact Nieto-Cuebas at [email protected]. To learn more about the Modern Foreign Languages Department, visit www.owu.edu/mfl.