Blood Wedding
by Federico Garcia Lorca
at Augustine's (venue 152), Edinburgh

Munira Mirza

This is a play often put on by sixth formers because the thrills are cheap and easy to grab.

The plot is violent and earthy, the dialogue has a poetic quality that does not rely on the quality of the acting, and the set can be cluttered up with interesting artwork from the art department down the school corridor. The Outhouse Productions version of Blood Wedding had all these classic combinations of a school play. Much of the patterning and imagery that Lorca writes with is wasted by the production and they rely too heavily on music and visual effects for audience attention.

The story revolves around the jealousy and violence of rural life in Andalucia, Spain. A mother grieves for her murdered son and husband but the prospect of her youngest son's wedding brings hope that newborn children may bring peace and prosperity to the landscape. However, the spectre of human passions haunt the celebrations as it is revealed that the new bride is still in love with her past lover, now wed and imprisoned in his own marriage. The rituals of the village community (the dressing of the bride, the communal dancing and folk music) are imbued with a tragic inevitability that human anger and envy will rise again and dominate the celebrations.

While the effort is commendable, and the actress playing the overbearing matriarch is especially good, most of the acting is unconvincing. The set looked as though it was going to collapse throughout and there were far too many people on the stage - all of which served to distract from the story. It felt as though the producers complicated the play too much and would have been better off without the stage props and frills.