The play ("The Ballad of the Three Innocents") as originally written by Pedro Mario Herrero was set in a small town in Extremadura (Spain). However, censorship under the General Franco regime demanded the setting to be changed to a foreign country because the story was judged to be too naughty to be set in National-Catholic Spain, officially "the spiritual reservation of Occident", so the setting was changed to rural Italy, which got carried over to the movie. Modern performances of the play use the original setting.