Blood Wedding

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.

1998: Produced 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 leats four languages: Afrikaans, English, Xhosa and Tamil.

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

2005: From Cape Town is a collaborative work between the La Rosa Spanish Dance Theatre and Adéle Blank's Free Flight Dance Company in a reworking of that great Spanish tragedy, Blood Wedding, 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.