Blood Wedding: Metta Theatre
Even if you are unfamiliar with the plot of Federico Garcia Lorca’s tragedy, it does not take a genius to work out that a play entitled Blood Wedding will not end happily. Guilt and misery seem very far away as you enter the auditorium for Poppy Burton-Morgan’s production for Metta Theatre at the Southwark Playhouse where audience members are presented with an order of service, given twiglets and encouraged to sing and dance as wedding guests. It is a lot less embarrassing than it sounds and being part of the celebrations makes it impossible not to feel engaged when it all falls apart.
In the good old days, when people left their front doors unlocked and flu was non-swine, plays were ‘set’ in particular times and places; whereas now they are ‘re-imagined and re-contextualised for the Twenty-First Century’. Metta have opted for a cleverly ambiguous location that could as easily be the Caribbean as Croydon: angry young men with knives are found in abundance on either side of the Atlantic.
There are strong performances throughout the piece with seamless doubling by most cast members. Jade Anouka transforms herself at will from beautiful bride to death incarnate and Naomi Wirthner (who plays 2 different mothers) grows in stature throughout the performance until her grief and anger threaten to overwhelm everyone left alive at the end.
The 21st century mostly suits the play, particularly during the first half, until the bride and her first love run away together on the night of the wedding with the groom in hot pursuit. At this point Lorca’s lines begin to show through the re-imagining and the audience, accustomed to participating in the action, is left to silently watch fate work its terrible will. Not something anyone would want to get involved in.
Blood Wedding: Metta Theatre
by Federico Garcia Lorca
July 21st 2009 – August 15th 2009
Show starts: 7.30pm (Saturday matinee 3.00pm)
Running time: 90 mins
