OBSERVER: Blood Wedding
In an ambitious but overreaching and ultimately disappointing production, Theatre Works, Tashmadada and JMC Performance Ensemble presented Blood Wedding, the grand Spanish tragedy by Frederico Garcia Lorca.
The play revolves around a proposed wedding. The bride-to-be is betrothed to a young man but is in love with another man, Felix.
Unfortunately, Felix and the bridegroom come from two families engaged in a blood feud and the ensuing conflict between these three characters leads to a tragic outcome.
An adaptation, the script was an edited version of an English translation that was itself an edited version of the original script in Spanish.
This meant the loss of several characters from the original play. It also meant that some elements of the plot were left out and the intense poetic nature of Lorca’s text was lost in translation.
The seven actors in the ensemble were Connor Raselli (playing the father), Dion Zapantis (Leonardo Felix), Jonathan Pindiura (Groom/Son), Mia Cannolo (Leonardo’s wife), Mohamed Al Ziady (Weaver), Tess Lynch Steele (Mother) and Teresa Giansiracusa (Bride).
Their performances were very uneven. Too often dialogue could not be understood because voices were too soft or poorly projected. Histrionics trumped passion.
The cast performed with conviction but several characters and the relationships between them were not portrayed convincingly.
Part of the problem here was Deborah Leiser-Moore’s direction, as it too suffered from an uneven patchy quality.
Her direction was strong visually, with some wonderful tableaux and movement pieces complemented by atmospheric music.
Still, her actors’ performances left much to be desired and, consequently, the story rarely felt true nor the tragedy believable.
This was a shame because, when done well, Blood Wedding can be magnificent theatre. However this production, for all its youthful energy and vigour, did not fully get to grips with the style of acting necessary for the play to be fully brought to life.
Venue: Theatre Works, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda
Review by Peter Murphy