Idea Transcript
Blood Wedding
2nd year Drama and Performance Studies and Theatre Practice; Creative Producing Students Present
By Federico Garcia Lorca Translated by Gwynne Edwards
Tuesday 19th - Friday 22nd January 2010
Programme Edric Hall Theatre London South Bank University 103 Borough Road London SE1 0AA
The Spanish Civil War 1931
1936 February
1937 February
Monarchist government rejected in popular elections. Abdication of Alfonzo XIII.
Nationalists start a major offensive against Madrid. The International Brigade play an important part in resisting the offensive.
March
In the Battle of Guadalajara Italian 'volunteers' are defeated. This leads to Franco abandoning any attempt to take Madrid.
Leftist Popular Front Party (republicans) win national elections.
March
The right wing Falange Party is banned.
April
Guernica destroyed by German aerial bombing.
March-May
Street riots, strikes and general anarchy in some parts of Spain.
May
Republican groups in Barcelona weaken due to internal wrangling.
July
Military uprisings in Spanish Morocco and some parts of mainland Spain. The government dissolves the regular army. Franco arrives to take command of the army in Morocco. Hitler agrees to help the Nationalists while Stalin agrees to support the Republicans. German and Italian planes airlift Franco's army to the Spanish mainland.
June
The strategic city of Bilboa falls to the Nationalists.
August
The Vatican recognise Franco's regime.
August
First International Brigade volunteers arrive in Spain. Federico Garcia Lorca murdered by Nationalist sympathisers.
September
November
A military Junta names Franco as head of state and Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish armed forces. Germany and Italy recognise Franco as head of Spain's government.
1938 April
Republican Spain is split in two by the Nationalists.
May
Franco calls for the Republicans to surrender unconditionally.
July
Start of the collapse of the Republican army after the Battle of the Ebro.
1939 January
Barcelona falls to Franco.
February
Britain and France recognise the legitimacy of Franco's government.
March
Madrid surrenders to Franco.
Federico Garcia Lorca Lorca is one of the few indisputably great dramatists of the twentieth century’ Observer Poet, painter, musician, theatre director and Spain’s most celebrated dramatist, Federico Garcia Lorca was murdered by Nationalist sympathisers at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Many of his passionate and intensely lyrical plays focus on peasant life and the forces of human nature, combining innovatory dramatic technique with Spanish popular tradition. Blood Wedding is set in a village community in Lorca’s Andalusia, and tells the story of a couple drawn irresistibly together in the face of an arranged marriage. Written when Lorca was at the height of his powers, it is the play on which his international reputation was founded.
Blood Wedding Scene One Scene Two Scene Three
Act One The House Of The Mother And Bridegroom The House Of Leonardo Felix The Home The Bride And Father
Scene Two
Act Two Four Days Later Outside The Day Of The Wedding Outside The Wedding Reception
Scene One Scene Two
Act Three Deep In The Forest A White Room
Scene One
Director’s Note Blood Wedding is one of three plays known collectively as Lorca’s ‘Rural Tragedies’ In its structure, the play echoes the original tragedies of ancient Greece; there is a chorus, the protagonist experiences hubris, and there is a ceremonial holding frame. But Lorca’s play also draws on other influences. For example, the Gipsy folk traditions that he grew up with and studied in his native Andalusía, and the Surrealist movement that his friends and contemporaries, Salvador Dali and Lois Bunuel were exploring in the university in Granada. Most importantly though, the play is a work of art: a stunning example of Lorca’s poetic and sensitive response toward the oppression of his time. The play is set in Andalusía in the 1930’s and presents a small isolated farming community who slavishly work the harsh and arid land in order to make it provide for them. They are a strongly religious people whose ceremonies (for example, the wedding of the title) play a central role in the community’s life. However, though the characters strive to perform the roles assigned to them by their society, Lorca’s play
exposes the underlying and contradictory passions that really drive them, often towards forbidden fruit. As an early exponent of Surrealism, Lorca blends naturalistic action with more poetic passages to present a tragedy that reveals these unconscious desires. Written at a time when Spain was undergoing an upheaval that would see Franco set up a right wing dictatorship, the play points towards the cruelty of that oppression and finally celebrates the impossibility of the complete suppression of an individual, a people, even a country.
Blood Wedding suggests you cannot control the subconscious.
Jon Lee - Director
The Company
Jehu Henry
Elle Panteli
Aisling Corderoy
Nousha Kiani
Ben Jones
Louie Hullett
Hannah Millest
Helen Coombe
Raie Buckley
Jeremy Brooks
Callum Paylor
Jade Golding
Nikolai Fisher
Christopher MacAllister
Chantelle Smith
Siobhan McInnes
Georgina McMahon
Katie Squires
Yehoshua Woodford
Creative Team
Cast In Order Of Appearance The Mother The Bridegroom A Neighbour The Mother-In-Law The Wife Leonardo First Girl Servant The Father The Bride Second Girl First Youth Second Youth First Woodcutter Second Woodcutter Third Woodcutter The Moon Beggar Woman/Death Little Girl Guests
Helen Coombe Callum Paylor Georgina McMahon Katie Squires Nousha Kiani Nikolai Fisher Chantelle Smith Jade Golding Jeremy Brooks Hannah Millest Elle Panteli Christopher MacAllister Yehoshua Woodford Jehu Henry Ben Jones Louie Hullett Aisling Corderoy Raie Buckley Siobhan McInnes The Cast
Director Producer Production Manager Design Consultant DSM Lighting Designer Asst Lighting Designer Sound Designer ASM/Props Costumes
Make Up And Hair
Set Design Set Coordination Marketing Design Press Relations Publicity Photography Rehearsal Photography
Acknowledgements A2posterprinting.com, Naked Creativity, Image House, National Theatre, Chay Honey, Richard Johnson
Jon Lee Gill Foster Jon Grant Caroline Gordon Hayley Barham Holly O’Donnell Mari Uuemae Philisha Clarke Siobhan McInnes Shakira Roberts Jemma Sanders Siobhan Halpin Ellen Chaloner Jemma Sanders Siobhan Halpin Theatre Practice Students Ellen Challoner Jemma Sanders Ian Gower Philisha Clarke Chay Honey Richard Johnson
Jon Lee
Caroline Gordon
Jon Grant
Jon Lee's directing credits include: Bacchaefull, a contemporary adaptation of Euripides' The Bacchae and Time Out's Fringe Show of the Year; Aeschylus’ Persians for Thiasos, performed in Cyprus as part of the International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama; Open Ground & Other Rooms, two new plays performed at Theatro Technis; Krapp’s Last Tape by Beckett and Galileo by Brecht at Brentwood Theatre. Jon was a member of academic staff at Drama Centre London and teaches part-time at the City Lit Institute. He has an MA in Dance Theatre and recently showed a piece of performance research at the Bonnie Bird Theatre in the Laban Institute entitled, Between the Quick and the Dead. Jon is a co-founder of the contemporary performance group, Dirty Market Theatre. www.dirtymarket.co.uk
Having studied Theatre Design at the Central School of Art and Design and completed a degree in Theatre Studies at Warwick University, Caroline began her professional career as Director/Designer in the mid 1980s. Her work as a designer includes Agamemnon and Awakening at The Royal Exchange, Manchester and The Suicide at Contact Theatre, Manchester. Caroline combined her work as a designer with directing, firstly for her own company, Made-Up TC and then as a freelancer. Productions include: Casanova, Fair Game, The Widow’s Tears, Lady Audley's Secret, Hamlet, The Hydra (MUTC); A Tale of Two Cities, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing (National tours). Caroline has also worked as an Art Director in the film industry mainly for corporate films.
Jon started his career as a Performing Arts Technician at Middlesex University, followed by City and Islington Sixth Form Centre. During this time he also worked for Relevent Events on many outdoor concerts from pop to classical, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Simply Red and Will Young. In 2005 Jon started working at the Dominion Theatre, home of We Will Rock You and became Chief Electrician - during which time he also worked on shows including the Royal Variety Performance 2006, Sugababes, Ricky Gervais and Harry Hill. Jon is now working at the Adelphi Theatre and is currently involved in the installation of the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Love Never Dies.
In Rehearsal
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Cafe a j aran
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Welcome to
The Edric Hall Theatre
we very much hope you enjoy your stay with us. Before and after the performance you will be able to join us in our Spanish bar at the rear of the theatre where you can purchase alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.