Blood Wedding

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Blood Wedding (original title in Spanish Bodas de Sangre (1933)) is a tragedy by Spanish dramatic author Frederico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936). Some themes present in Blood Wedding are the cycle of life, the progression of time, choice, deception, fate, and nature. The cycle of life and progression of time are illustrated by the simple fact that the entire play is devoted to a wedding. The process of marriage in every culture marks the concrete and tangible evidence of a passage from childhood to adulthood, and a progression through life and time. Theatre critics have often grouped it with Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba as a "rural trilogy". Lorca's plan for a "trilogy of the Spanish earth" remained unfinished at the time of his death.

The original text

It was written in 1932 and first performed in Madrid in March 1933 and later that year in Buenos Aires.

Translations and adaptations

English translation published in Three tragedies of Federico Garcia Lorca, translated by James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. O'Connell. New Directions, 1955.

Other titles that have been used in English are The Fatal Wedding or Bitter Oleander.

Translated into Afrikaans by André P. Brink, entitled Bloedbruilof.

Performance history in South Africa

1985: Bloedbruilof 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.

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

Sources

Wikipedia [1].

World Drama, by Allardyce Nicoll. Harrap, 1949.

Various entries in the NELM catalogue.

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