Blood Wedding

BLOOD WEDDING Federico García Lorca Translated by Guillermo Verdecchia ORIGINAL score BY ANDREW PENNER }{

Approximate running time: 1 hour & 30 minutes There will be no intermission

ARTIST NOTE: ERIN BRANDENBURG

My first attempt to understand Blood Wedding tragedy. In the end we are our own worst was through translation. From one language jailers. Lorca’s universe does not provide to another, one country to another. And a moral lesson; there are no simple answers. before a word was written down for this It is the struggle that is important and production we began a translation in sound, creates the poetry. To live is to dance with in melody, in rhythm, tempo and movement. your demons and in the process throw your It was like a folk song, a murder ballad heart at the horns. passed down through the years and across continents and each time it is performed is It is a great pleasure to open Blood Wedding reborn for that time and that moment. The across the hall from The Just, shows Frank story haunts you because you’ve heard it Cox O’Connell and I have worked on together before, but in it there’s a struggle for some- and alongside each other for the past two thing deeper that grabs hold and won’t let go. years. These shows have shared a conversation and development here at Soulpepper. Thank Blood Wedding is the story of a wedding. And you to Daniel Brooks for his guidance and weddings involve families and communities mentorship throughout the process. Thank and traditions and history and promises. you to László Marton for suggesting And if you are lucky, a great band. Weddings Lorca and thank you to Albert and the entire stand out as pivotal moments of ritual, and Soulpepper company for supporting develop- reinforce what we as a community treasure ment and production. or most hope for. We want to protect what is ours, what we’ve worked for, to live up to expectations; and hope for the best. To resist and truly question our place in the community is to act against the status quo and question Erin Brandenburg , what Arthur Miller calls the “seemingly Director of stable cosmos surrounding us.” That is the Blood Wedding central conflict in this story and also the CREATIVE TEAM BLOOD WEDDING

CAST

Anna Atkinson Caroline Gillis Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster Young Woman/Band Neighbour/Maid Wife Deborah Drakeford Hailey Gillis Colin Palangio Mother in Law/ Bride Leonardo Woodcutter/Guest Celia Green Andrew Penner Diane D’Aquila Girl Moon/Band Mother/Beggar Gordon Hecht Sophia Walker Oliver Dennis Groom Young Woman/Woodcutter Father/Woodcutter Richard Lam Young Man/Band

Production

Erin Brandenburg Richard Feren Robert Harding Director Sound Designer Production Stage Manager Guillermo Verdecchia Andrew Penner Darragh Parsons Translator Composer & Music Director Stage Manager Anahita Dehbonehie Andrea Nann Jordana Weiss Set & Costume Designer Movement Director Assistant Stage Manager Rebecca Picherack Kelly McEvenue Lighting Designer Alexander Coach

SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION

Jacqueline Robertson-Cull Natalie Swiercz Greg Chambers Head of Hair & Makeup Dresser Props Builder Geoff Hughes Paul Boddum Bill Stahl Cutter Interim Head Scenic Artist Carpenter Barbara Nowakowski Ksenia Ivanova Michael Ahn First Hand Scenic Painter Carpentery Intern

Thank you to Tamsin Kelsey, Richard Sanger, Miranda Mulholland (Harrow Fair) for music and inspiration, Howie Shia, all the artists who contributed to the creation, workshops and development of this production.

The video and audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited.

ILLUSTRATION: GRACIA LAM BACKGROUND NOTES

lood Wedding is the first of Federico Three short years after the premiere of BGarcía Lorca’s trio of dramatic master- Blood Wedding, Lorca disappeared, killed pieces, followed by Yerma and The House by Nationalist forces for his activism and of Bernarda Alba. Lorca called them his his rumoured homosexuality. The confla- “trilogy of the Spanish earth.” Elemental gration of the Spanish Civil War claimed forces abound in this haunting tale of love his books, burned publicly in his home and revenge: not only earth but water, town of Granada, and banned from Franco’s flowers, the moon. Titanic emotions Spain. But the Fascist guns could not threaten; jealousy, rage, and love battle silence the power of his words or blast the for supremacy. Blood Wedding was an clarity of his vision. They live on, as bright instant sensation when it premiered in and fragrant as the Bride’s crown of Madrid in 1933, going on to a production orange blossoms. in Buenos Aires the same year. It remains Lorca’s most internationally produced Playwright Biography work, its tragic simplicity and humanity striking a universal chord. Federico García Lorca was a poet, playwright and director. Born near Granada The inspiration for the play was a news- in 1898, he later moved to Madrid, finding paper article Lorca had saved for years. success in the ’20s as a poet. His great In 1932 he took the bones of the true story plays were performed for rapt audiences and in a single week he wrote this jewel, in the early ’30s. In 1936 Lorca went missing. whose themes embrace the cycle of life, Officials called his death “an accident of the progression of time, the tension war” but in 2015 newly released docu- between love and duty. With stunning ments revealed that Franco’s soldiers had depth and economy he explores what abducted Lorca, driven him deep into the happens when individual desire comes up countryside, and executed him by firing against the laws and norms of so-called squad. He was buried in an unmarked civilized society. Nearly all the characters grave that has never been found. are nameless: The Bride, the Groom, the Mother, the Father, the Wife. The only TRANSLATOR Biography exception is Leonardo Félix, the man the Bride loves but cannot marry. Woven Guillermo Verdecchia is a Resident Artist through the play, an integral part of the and Head of New Play Development spell it casts, are songs, chants, poetry, at Soulpepper. A Chalmers and Governor music, and folk dancing. Imbued with General’s Award-winning playwright, the rhythms of the Flamenco and gypsy teacher, director, actor, and translator, he traditions Lorca studied, rich with his is currently developing a new piece called astute observations of the depth and Galicia and preparing to work with Soul- constriction of village life, Blood Wedding pepper’s next group of Academy playwrights. unfolds with a viral inevitability.

The video and audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited. Background Notes by 2016 Soulpepper Resident Artist Paula Wing THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING!

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Young Centre Soulpepper is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres for the Performing (pact), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (tapa) and Theatre Ontario, Arts and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists Toronto who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Scenic Artists and Set Distillery Historic Decorators employed by Soulpepper are represented by Local 828 of the International District Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

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