Federico García Lorca’s “Blood Wedding,” a tragic masterpiece considered to be the greatest Spanish play of the 20th century, will be presented Wednesday through Saturday, March 3-20, at 7:30 p.m. in the Margetts Theatre at Brigham Young University. A Saturday matinee will also be shown March 13 at 2 p.m. There will be no performances Sundays or Mondays.
Tickets are $8 and can be purchased at the Fine Arts Ticket Office, (801) 422-4322 or arts.byu.edu. Discounted tickets for dress rehearsals March 3-4 are also available.
Using a translation by Gwynne Edwards, the BYU production explores themes of family, honor and death. Lorca weaves together poetry, folk music and striking visual images to tell the heart-wrenching story of three ill-fated lovers.
“Blood Wedding” plays out the conflict between individual wishes and societal ruling and laws. In the play, a young bride deserts her newlywed husband on her wedding day to rekindle her relationship with her ex-lover, her cousin’s husband, Leonardo. Based on the laws of the community, this offense sentences Leonardo to death.
“‘Blood Wedding’ is a tragedy. It is a landscape of mystical and mythical forces winding and binding the lives of these characters into knots of significance that resist untying,” said director Rodger Sorensen. “‘Blood Wedding’ is a palimpsest, tectonically layering stories and characters, all absolutely present and alive.”
“A palimpsest is a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced or ‘rubbed smooth’ to make room for later writing but of which traces remain. It is something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form,” Sorensen explained.
The cast includes Emily Foster as the bride, Andrew Joy as the bridegroom, Jennie Pardoe as the mother and Brock Kannan as Leonardo, as well as Becky Callahan, Justine Trotter, Kristen Metzger, Bethany Talley, Barta Heiner, Laurie Angell, Brighton Sloan and Jason Langlois.
Production staff members are choreographer Caroline Jean Prohosky, music director Britain Young, dramaturg Julie Nevin, stage manager Tiffany Smithee, scenic designer Heather Starr, costume designer Shelby Luke and composers Britain Young, Mari Toronto and Miki Smith.
The production is sponsored by the Department of Theatre and Media Arts. For more information, contact Rodger Sorensen at (801) 422-8132 or at rodger_sorensen@byu.edu.
Writer: Ricardo Castro
