Blood Wedding

A powerful and allegorical play, Blood Wedding is a demanding choice which requires a large cast, all performing strongly. The Trinity Players’ staging was variable, with some very strong performances carrying the play.


Tom MacKenzie as Leonardo was necessarily brutish and inarticulate throughout most of the play. Daniel Reeve as the Bride’s Father was as affable and shallow as his part demands. Cicely Hadman was convincing as the Bride, but seemed stronger in scenes of restraint and composure than in exchanges which required much passion. Rosie Batty as The Servant brought welcome light relief in the intense scenes, finding the innate comedy in her lines without settling for giggles or in jokes.

The most outstanding actor was Katie Leviten as the bridegroom’s mother. Her lines were delivered powerfully, with a mesmerising attention to the poetry and flow of Lorca’s language. Having seen Leviten in The Lion in Winter also playing an embittered matriarch, I felt her performances were very impressive and it would be interesting to see her in more varied roles.

Trinity College’s dining room made for an extravagant, if impractical venue. The high ceilings, balcony and the arrangement of chairs gave the desired impression of being in a church. However there were clumsy scene changes, with scuffles and giggle within hearing on a few occasions. Visibility and audibility were also something of an issue, with many members of the audience standing to see, and some characters speaking too quickly to be understood. Some of the actors in smaller roles also let their performances lapse as they walked off up the central aisle.

The set was simple, with projected lights on four blank screens used to convey different settings. Costumes and props were often a little overstated: the lumberjack shirts and plastic axes of the three woodcutters distracted from their performance rather than adding to it. Similarly Death’s long black robes were too obvious, a bolder choice would have been to choose a more subtle costume and use fewer props altogether.

The chanting from the balcony and backstage worked well, giving the performance a church-like intensity. Similarly, the overlapping Spanish interspersed with some speeches gave the language a rhythmic and dynamic flow.

Overall Blood Wedding was ambitious, with some aspects of the production drawing away from the basic power of the play.

Hannah Watson (Unverified), 13/02/08

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