Bodas de Sangre

Bodas de Sangre ("The blood wedding") ) is a Spanish tragedy by Frederico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)[1].

Best known in the English world today as Blood Wedding.

The original text

It was written in 1932 and first performed in Madrid in March 1933 under Lorca's own direction and later that year in Buenos Aires. The Spanish text was published in the same year.

The play deals with issues such as the cycle of life, the progression of time, choice, deception, fate, and nature, and emphasizes. Theatre critics have often grouped it with Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba.

Translations and adaptations

There are a number of English translations of the play. Among them:

Bitter Oleander by José A. Weissman, first performed on Broadway in 1935.

Blood Wedding by Langston Hughes

Published as Blood Wedding by James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. O'Connell in Three tragedies of Federico Garcia Lorca. New Directions, 1955.

The English version by Graham-Lujan and Richard L. O'Connell was translated into Afrikaans and adapted as a radio drama by Pieter de Bruyn as Huwelik van Bloed ("Wedding of blood"). Broadcast by the SABC in 1983, directed by Suzanne van Wyk.

Translated into Afrikaans by André P. Brink, entitled Bloedbruilof (1985).

Performance history in South Africa

1954: Presented by the University of Cape Town's Speech and Drama Department in September at the Little Theatre, directed by Gretel Mills.

1981: Huwelik van Bloed was broadcast as a radio drama on the programme Radioteater by the Afrikaans service of the SABC on 31 January 1983, directed by Suzanne van Wijk.

1985: Bloedbruilof, Brink's Afrikaans version, was directed by Francois Swart, starring Wilna Snyman, Jacques Loots and Johan Malherbe. Design by Chris van den Berg, Sand Du Plessis Theatre, August 1985.

1998: Produced multilingually under the title Blood Wedding by the University of Cape Town Drama Department on the centenary of the author's birth, directed by Geoffrey Hyland and Sandra Temmingh. With Anel Hamersma, Thain Torres, Busisiswe Pakade, Michelle Gautschi, William Prophet, Riana Alfreds, Sebalo Vinger, Vaneshree Lingham. UCT Arena Theatre. In this production the dialogue was in at least four languages: Afrikaans, English, Xhosa and Tamil.

2002: Produced by Rhodes University Drama Department, directed by Dion van Niekerk in May 2002.

2005: Produced as a collaborative reworking between the La Rosa Spanish Dance Theatre and Adéle Blank's Free Flight Dance Company , choreographed by Geoffrey Hyland. This production opened at the Oude Libertas Theatre in January and was subsequently seen at the KKNK and at the Johannesburg's Civic Theatre. Also at the Suidoosterfees in January 2006.