A new version by Tanya Ronder
By Federico García Lorca
Directed By Rufus Norris
The bride has chosen well; the man of her future is a glass of clear water. But the muddy river of her past can't stop flowing.
Blood Wedding, written in 1932 by the legendary playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, is based on the explosive story of a wedding party in rural Spain. His other major work for the theatre includes Yerma and The House of Bernada Alba.
Rufus Norris has also directed Festen at the Almeida, for which he was awarded the 2004 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director. Rufus Norris and Tanya Ronder previously collaborated on Peribanez at the Young Vic.
Writer
Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca was born 5th June, 1898, in Fuente Vaqueros, an Andalucian village near Granada. The son of landowner Federico García Rodriguez and his wife, Vicenta Lorca Romero, a gifted pianist. In 1909, the family moved to Granada itself and Lorca quickly became fascinated with the vibrancy and exotic cultures of the city.
Interested in music, theatre and literature, Lorca trained as a classical pianist until 1916, when after the death of his piano teacher, he turned his attentions to writing. Often to be found reciting his poems in local cafes, he quickly made friends with fellow poets and artists. After finishing secondary school, he read law at the University of Granada and in 1919, he moved to Madrid to continue his law studies at the Residencia de Estudiantes where he would meet and become friends with artist Salvador Dali and filmmaker Luis Bunuel. He remained in Madrid for the next fifteen years.
Lorca and Dali became close (though its not known if they were lovers) and influenced each other’s work; in 1927, Dali collaborated on Lorca’s Barcelona production of the historical drama Mariana Pineda. It was also during these years that Lorca was to meet and become close friends with composer Manual de Falla and in 1922 they organised Spain’s first amateur festival of Andalusian flamenco music where Lorca was influenced further by the traditions of folk and gypsy music.
Alongside organising theatrical and musical recitals, Lorca was already publishing his writing. Having already written Impresiones y Paisajes (1918) as a result of his travels about Spain, he published his first anthology of poems, Libro de Poemas in1921. He also began to write his famous Poema del Cante Jondo which was published ten years later and in 1928, he published Romancero Gitano – these works, infused with the mythology and folklore of the cultures surrounding Lorca, were quickly earning him a reputation throughout the Hispanic world as a ‘gypsy poet’; a title that he was never entirely comfortable with. Lorca had also met and fallen in love with a sculptur, Emilio Aladren. When this relationship failed, Lorca’s unhappiness fuelled the decision to leave Madrid and in 1929, he sailed to New York.
Urban New York proved to be a culture-shock for the non-english speaking poet and his moods during this time were recorded later in Poeta en Nueva York (1940). Lorca was appalled by the frightening and corrupted city, but also fascinated by the cultural diversity of its occupants; Oda al Rey de Harlem is full of the rhythms and cadences of the Harlam jazz scene. Lorca left New York after only nine months and turned to the more primitive Cuba where he remained for a further four months.
Lorca returned to Spain in 1930 just as the Second Republic was established, leading to a democracy that would last for the next six years. The new regime suited Lorca and he became enthusiastically involved in its cultural programme, becoming director of La Barracca, a university touring theatre company, and between 1932 and 1936, he wrote the three plays that he is best known for; Bodas de Sangre, Yerma and La Casa de Bernarda Alba.
By 1936, Spain had reached political unrest as extreme right-wing groups threatened the Socialist government, and by the summer, civil war had broken out. Lorca was arrested by right-wing supporters on 16 August and shot two days later. Although he had no political affiliations, he was a strong supporter of the Left, and it is likely that his captors believed that the death of a known writer and homosexual would be an example to others. It is not known where he was buried.
Servant
Theatre: His Dark Materials, Stuff Happens (National Theatre), Pericles (Lyric Hammersmith), Vagina Monologues (Criterion Theatre), Breath Boom (Royal Court Theatre), A Street Car Named Desire (National Studio), The Dispute (Royal Shakespeare Company), Starstruck (Tricycle Theatre), Tamburlane, The Odyssey (Royal Shakespeare Company), Death Catches the Hunter (Traverse Theatre), Love at a Loss (Battersea Arts Centre), Cloud Nine (Contact Theatre), The Snow Queen (Young Vic), Glory! (Lyric Theatre, Derby Playhouse & West Yorkshire Playhouse), Our Day Out (Birmingham Rep), Pinchdice & Co (Women’s Theatre Group), Crowned With Fame (Royal Shakespeare Company), Twice Over (Gay Sweatshop), Lear’s Daughters (Women’s Theatre Group).
Television: Dalziel and Pascoe, Casualty, Macbeth, Jonathan Creek, Close Relations, Peak Practice, Thieftakers, Brass Eye, Twelve Angry Men, An Independent Man, Tomorrow People, Circle of Deceit, Health and Efficiency, Brittas Empire, Birthrights: West Indian Women at War, Eastenders, The Southbank Show: Glory!, A prayer Before Birth.
Film: Every Time I Look at You, A Rather English Marriage, What My Mother Told Me, One in Four: A Short Film About Melons, The Missing Finger, I is a Long Memoried Woman.
Radio: Numerous radio plays and readings.
Adjoa is also the voice of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency audio series.
Leonardo
Theatre: Roberto Zucco (Teatro Nacional de las Artes), El Rapto de las Estrellas (Polifórum Cultural Siqueiros).
Film: The Science of Sleep, The King, La Mala Educaión, Los Diaries de Motocicleta, Dot the I, Y Tu Mama Tambien, El Crimen del Padre Amaro, Amores Perros, El Ojo en la Nuca, Cerebro, De Tripas Corazon.
The Bride
Theatre includes: Braambos (Het Toneel Speelt), The House of Bernarda Alba (Het Nationale Toneel), The Damned (HZT Hollandia), The Comedy of Love (Het NationalE Toneel), The Dresser (Hummelinck Stuurman).
Television includes: Baalntjer, Consult, Nosmo King, De Corsage, Parels van Oranje, Wij Alexander, De Band, De Acteurs.
Film includes: The dark Diamond, Boy Meets Girl Stories, Rosenstrasse, Twin Sisters, The Splits, Brush With Fate,Bella Bettien, Chalk, The Red Swan, Una Bellezza Che Non Lascia Scampo, The Black Meteor, Everybody Famous!, Moet and Chandon, Little Crumb, Dichtweefsel, The 14th Chick, Tate’s Voyage, Arends
Mother
Theatre includes: James Joyce’s The Dead (Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre), Olga (Project Arts Centre, Dublin), The House of Bernarda Alba (Abbey Theatre), Tartuffe (Roundabout, New York), Stolen Child (Calypso), Gates of Gold (Gate Theatre), The Plough and the Stars (Minneapolis, USA), Happy Days (Almeida Theatre, Gate Theatre, Dublin & Barbican), The Colleen Bawn (Abbey Theatre & National Theatre), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Los Angeles, USA), A Longs Day’s Journey Into Night (Gate Theatre), Blithe Spirit (Gate Theatre & Minneapolis, USA), Bailegangaire (Royal Court), The Importance of Being Earnest (Abbey Theatre), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Los Angeles), She Stoops to Conquer (Gate Theatre), Philadelphia Here I Come (Abbey Theatre), Mother of All the Behans (Abbey Theatre, New York, Dublin, Edinburgh & Montreal Festivals), London Assurance (Gate Theatre), Mary Makebelieve, Double Dealer (Abbey Theatre), Dancing at Lughnasa (Abbey Theatre, National Theatre, Phoenix Theatre & Plymouth Broadway), The Plough and the Stars (Tyrone Guthrie, Minneapolis), Twelfth Night (Gate Theatre), The Seagull, Heartbreak House (I.T.C), The Rivals (Gate Theatre), Philadelphia Here I Come, Carthaginians (Abbey Theatre), Gypsy (Gaiety Theatre), Absurd Person Singular, Season’s Greetings (Gate Theatre).
Television: Sharpe’s Gold, Scarlett, Grushko, Suddenly Last Summer, Hostages.
Film: Happy Days, Conamara, About Adam, Mad About Mambo, The Hi Lo Country, The Matchmaker, The Butcher Boy, Snakes and Ladders, Remember, The Saint of Fort Washington, Ulysses, Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man, Fools of Fortune.
The Groom
Theatre includes: In Iceland: Angel Children (H & H Theatre Company), The Visitor (Reykjavik City Theatre), Key Around the Neck (Vesturport), Death of a Salesman (Reykjavik City Theatre), Bash (Egg Theatre Company), Puntila and Matti (Reyjavik City Theatre), Surf (Vesturport), Romeo and Juliet (Vesturport).
In England: Romeo and Juliet (Young Vic & Playhouse).
As Director: Titus (Vesturport), Shattered (Vesturport).
Film includes: Reykjavik Guesthouse, Cold Light, Eleven Men Out.
The Wife
Theatre: Sleeping Beauty (Young Vic & New York, USA), The Crucible (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bristol Old Vic), Bright (Soho Theatre), Redundant (Royal Court Theatre), Boston Marriage (Donmar Warehouse & West End), Top Girls (New Vic Theatre), Fireface (Royal Court Theatre), The Maids (Venue 13, Edinburgh).
Television: Rome, Born and Bred, The Young Visitors, Sons and Lovers, Midsomer Murders, Peak Practice, That’s Not Me.
Film: Man With a Movie Camera, Festival, Frozen, The Calcium Kid, The Gathering Storm, The Hours.
Mother in Law
Theatre: Roots and Wings (Sherman Theatre), How the Other Half Loves, SAP, The Seagull, Under Milk Wood (Welsh Drama Company), Good Woman of Setzuan (Hampstead Theatre), Cinderella, Wizard of Oz (New Theatre Cardiff).
Television: Pobol-y-Cwm, Streets of Gold, Trip Trap, Oliver’s Travels, Lifeboat, The Life of Eliza, Casualty, Licyris Olsorts, Dinas, The Bill, Lazarus, Coronation Street, The Committee, To Each His Own, The Angry Earth, Max Boyce Show, A penny For Your Dreams, End of Season, Shelley.
Film: Twin Town, Morphine and Dolly Mixtures, Rebecca’s Daughters, Hedd Wynn.
Radio: Tree of Liberty, Burnt, Born in Rhymney.
Girl
Theatre: Don Juan Comes Back from the War (Barons Court), Comedy of Arias (Kings Head).
Television: An Evil Streak.
Film: Greta May, The Management of the Poisoned Patient.
Neighbour
Theatre includes: Ay Federico (Orange Tree Theatre), On Golden Pond (Politeama Theatre, Lisbon), The Seduction of Anne Boleyn (Nuffield Theatre, Southhampton), The Cinnamon Veil (Cochrane Theatre & National Tour), Divine Words (St. John’s Mill Theatre Co., Ireland), Fevered Visions (Gulbenkian Foundation Theatre, Lisbon), The Knock on Effect (Union Theatre), Uncle Vanya, The House of Bernardo Alba (2 – Way Mirror Theatre Co.), Lets Call the Whole Thing Us, (Moreau, Brussels), De Afonso. Henriques a Maria Soares (Politeama Theatre, Lisbon), Bound and Trust (Edinburgh Festival).
Television includes: The Bill, Steel River Blues. In France: Recidive, L ‘Enfant en Heritage. In Portugal: Furia de Viver, Casa de Saudade, A Mulher do Sr. Ministro, Cabaret, Grande Noite, Todas ao Palco, Residencial Tejo, O Quadro Roubado, Marina Marina, Passados dos Carretos, Verao Quento, Sabado de Noite, Desculpem Qualquer Coisinha, Sozinhos em Casa.
Film: Diviner (Uk), El Rey de Napoles (Spain), La Via Lactea (Spain), Luz Negra (Spain).
Moon / Shy Girl
Theatre: World Music (Donmar Warehouse & Sheffield Crucible), Premier Amour (Onatti Theatre Company), Le Barillet (Bourbon), Tartuffe (Leconte De Lisle), Sweney Todd (Simmonds Theatre).
Televison: As If, Waking the Dead, Bad Girls.
Film: Batman Begins, Doctor Sleep, Emma Brody, Last Orders.
Father
Boy
Theatre: Festen (Lyric Theatre), Season’s Greetings (Uk Tour), Love’s A Luxury (Orange Tree Theatre), Peribanez (Young Vic), Much Ado About Nothing (London Stage), The Three Sisters, Have You Anything to Declare, The Caucasion Chalk Circle (Orange Tree), Clockwatching, Whispers Along the Patio (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Measure for Measure (Royal Shakespeare Company), Winner Takes All, Hurting (Orange Tree Theatre), The Dove (Croydon Warehouse), Tales from the Magic Story Bowl (Bolton Octagon), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet (Orange Tree Theatre), Love In a Wood (New End), Macbeth (Angels Theatre Co.), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mappa Mundi), The Woolgatherer (Royal Shakespeare Company).
Television: The Bill, Inspector Linley Mystery, Life Boat, Hit & Run, Doctors.
Film: Three Steps Back
Director
Theatre: Festen (Almeida, & West End), Sleeping Beauty (Young Vic, Barbican & New York), Peribanez, Afore Night Come (Young Vic), Under the Blue Sky, About the Boy, Workers Writes (Royal Court), Dirty Butterfly, Two Women (Soho Theatre), Small Change (Sheffield Crucible), Mish Alla Ruman (Al Kasaba, Ramallah), Small Craft Warnings (Pleasance Theatre), The Measles (The Gate), Waking Beauty, The Tempest (Arts Threshold).
Rufus is Co-Artistic Director of Wink.
For Wink: Strike Gently, The People Downstairs, The Art of Random Whistling, Rosa Carnivora, The Lizzie Play.
Opera & Music Theatre: Tall Stories, Sea Tongue, While I Was Waiting, Shawna and Ron’s Half Moon, Pierrot.
Rufus is an Associate Director of the Young Vic.
Designer
Theatre includes: For the Almeida: I.D. Other credits include: Sleeping Beauty (Young Vic, Barbican, New Victory Theatre, New York), House of Desires (Royal Shakespeare Company), Twelfth Night (Manchester Royal Exchange), Dirty Butterfly (Soho Theatre), Tall Stories (The Shout, BAC/Vienna Festival), Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas, USA), Under the Blue Sky (Royal Court), Measles (Gate Theatre), Our Boys (Soho Theatre). Katrina was also Assistant Director for Festen (Almeida & West End).
Opera includes: La Cenerentola (ETO), The Magic Flute (Holland Park), Carmen (Mid Wales Opera), Loratio (Royal College of Music).
Katrina is Co-Artistic director of Wink.
For Wink: Strike Gently, Away from the Body, The People Downstairs, The Art of Random Whistling (Young Vic Studio), Waking Beauty, Rosa Carnivora, The Lizzie Play (Arts Threshold, UK tour and Hong Kong).
Television includes: Fugee Girl (Costume Designer – Channel 4), The Power of Genius (Production Designer for animated trailer documentary on Picasso), Metrosexuality (Production Designer – six part series, short listed for BAFTA).
Katrina is also a recipient of a 2005 Arts Foundation Fellowship Award.
Lighting
Tim was lighting designer on Whistling Psyche and Brighton Rock at the Almeida and other Theatre includes: Sleeping Beauty (New York, Barbican, Young Vic), Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (Washington), The Play What I Wrote (Broadway, West End & tour), Noises Off (Broadway, West End & National Theatre), Romeo and Juliet, Of Mice and Men, Sweet Panic, Benefactors (West End), Lear, Ain’t Misbehaving, Piaf, Richard III, Edward II, High Society, A Chorus Line (Sheffield Crucible), A Raisin in The Sun (Lyric Hammersmith & tour), Clouds (tour), A Doll’s House (Birmingham Rep tour), Hamlet (Japan & Sadlers Wells), Merrily We Roll Along (Donmar), Electricity (WYP), Hamlet (Denmark), The Atheist’s Tragedy (Gold Medal 1995 Prague Quadrennial), The Wind in the Willows (Birmingham Rep).
Royal Shakespeare Company work includes; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Othello (& Japan & West End), Taming of The Shrew (& Washington), Antony and Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothing, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (all West End transfers), Macbeth (& Young Vic), Measure for Measure, Richard III, Titus Andronicus andHenry IV Parts 1 & 2 (Olivier Award nomination).
Opera & Ballet includes productions for Welsh National Opera, Kammeroper Vienna, D’Oyly Carte, Icelandic Opera, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra.
Sound Design
Paul’s recent designs include: Billy Elliot; Festen (Almeida & West End, Evening Standard Best Design Award 2004, & Olivier Award nomination 2005); Sleeping Beauty (Young Vic, Barbican, Broadway); The Pillowman (NT & Broadway - Olivier Award nomination 2004 for Best Sound Design); A Girl In A Car With A Man (Royal Court); Cruel and Tender (Young Vic, Chichester, Vienna Festival); Crestfall (Gate, Dublin: Irish Times Theatre Awards nomination 2004); Just So (Chichester Festival).
Other designs include: The Skin Of Our Teeth, Peribanez, Afore Night Come (Young Vic); over 70 designs for the Royal Court, including Plasticine and Far Away (also in New York – Lucille Lortel Award nomination 2003); The Permanent Way, Duck, The Steward Of Christendom, Shopping & Fucking, Blue Heart, Some Explicit Polaroids, Hinterland (Out of Joint); Cymbeline (RSC); Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya (Donmar & New York); The Beauty Queen Of Leenane (Druid, Royal Court & Broadway); The Chairs (Complicite – Drama Desk nomination on Broadway); Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (Broadway: Drama Desk Award Best Sound Design).
Carolyn’s sound design credits include: Gone To Earth (Shared Experience); Waiting For The Parade (Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts); Moonshed (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Habitats, Under The Curse (Gate Theatre); A Doll’s House, The Double Bass, The Provoked Wife, Mongoose (Southwark Playhouse); The Watery Part of the World (Sound And Fury - part of This Way Up national tour); Heavenly Hades (Red Circle Theatre Co); Small World (Sue Lee and Kosta Andreas Theatre Co - tour).
Associate sound design credits include Macbeth (Out Of Joint); Forty Winks (Royal Court); By The Bog Of Cats, (Wyndhams Theatre); Fix Up (National Theatre).
Music
Orlando Gough was a founder member of the bands The Lost Jockey & Man Jumping. He writes music mostly for the theatre; operas, plays, dance pieces, music-theatre.
His recent work includes This House Will Burn, a dance piece choreographed by Ashley Page for the Royal Ballet, music for Peribanez (Young Vic), & music for the 10-part documentary series The First World War (C4). He has recently finished writing For The Public Good, an oratorio for crowd & ranting MC, for English National Opera. Future projects include commissions for the Crouch End Festival Chorus, Scottish Ballet, the Stuttgart Festival & Welsh National Opera.
With the composer & singer Richard Chew he started the sixteen-piece choir The Shout, which includes singers from a diverse range of backgrounds - jazz, gospel, blues, opera, contemporary, early music, Indian classical.....
Orlando directs the choir, which last year toured its music-theatre piece Tall Stories to venues in England, Europe & America.
Assistant Director
This is Alex’s first production as Assistant Director.
He produced Life of Galileo (Battersea Arts Centre) and Playing Sinatra (New End Theatre) both for Word of Mouth Theatre Company and has worked extensively in Stage Management for the Almeida Theatre, Young Vic and Royal Court.
Adaptor
Tanya worked as an actress for many years. Her first play, an adaptation of ‘PERIBANEZ’ by Lope de Vega, was performed at the Young Vic Theatre in 2003. She edited the Shakespeare for Vesturport’s production of ‘ROMEO AND JULIET’ which performed at the Young Vic and at the Playhouse theatre in London. Her adaptation of ‘NIGHT FLIGHT’ (‘Vol de Nuit’) by Saint Exupéry, is being produced next year by Muztheater in Amsterdam, Holland. She is currently under commission by the RSC for a new English version of Ionesco’s ‘MACBETT’.
"Brilliantly directed by Rufus Norris. Another indication of how well Michael Attenborough's management is doing at the Islington playhouse"
Daily Express