Amid Contellation Theatre's production of Fredrico García Lorca's classic Blood Wedding, it's easy to see that Lorca was a man that exalted poetry, music, and gravitated towards idealism over quotidian drama. Like Hamlet or Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, Blood Wedding shares a queasy fascination with death, employing stylistic flourishes that indulge in macabre surrealism. However, its focus on existentialism obscures the chance for a well rounded story.
Blood Wedding begins with a haunting, beautiful choral arrangement buoyed by Behzad Habibzai's elegant flamenco guitar. Its opening scene reflects upon the murders of all but one of the men in the Mother (Deidra LaWan Starnes) and Groom's (Mark Halpern) family in poetic lamentations of fate's cruelty. We find out that the Bride-to-be (Victoria Reinsel) was once engaged to Leonardo (Dylan Meyers), a member of the the Felix family responsible for the aforementioned deaths, thus sparking the primary source of tension in the play.
Looming in nearly every scene is the specter of Death (Matthew Pauli), black-clad in a veiled sombrerro cordobés and belted with a tattered, blood red sash. The audience watches as he stalks behind each character under the threat of imminent death. He disappears briefly just before the wedding. Leonardo, on the cusp of the ceremony, is the first to arrive at the Bride's house, whipping up turmoil in the Bride's family. During the wedding party, key individuals begin disappearing. In an effort to retrieve the absentees the remaining guests set out toward the night's tragic conclusion.
Blood Wedding's conceptual muscle is on full display during the hunt sequence. Death and the Moon (Anastasia Wilson) emerge to deliver speeches dripping with lyricism, channeling monologues of bloodlust and murder balladry. The effect is intoxicating as it is off-putting. Minimal sound effects haunt the background as the two—Death and Moon—wax on mortality. But that's not to suggest that the play is completely stonefaced and morbid.
Often, even in the height of drama, dialog is broken up with moments of carping family comedy. Although Blood Wedding's identity is stilted in drama there are laughs to be had, spreading out the range of the play's provocations. Mood and atmosphere may excel in this production, but its narrative potency is lacking.
Even with the love triangle between the Groom, Bride, and Leonardo, there isn't enough development between the characters to yield a heady dose of pathos in the climax or resolution; Blood Wedding is more likely to appeal to the head, not the heart. Where there are dark, slithering soliloquies on existential themes, there's not much fuel for emotion. But even though it may not marry intellect and heart, Blood Wedding's still got enough music and melodrama to keep audiences rapt with attention.
Previously in Play DC:
- 5/9: PlayDC: The Taming of the Shrew @ Folger Theatre
- 5/3: PlayDC: God of Carnage @ Signature Theatre
- 4/25: PlayDC: "Come Fly Away" @ Kennedy Center
- 4/23: PlayDC: "Strange Interlude" @ Shakespeare Theatre Company
- 4/17: PlayDC: The Washington Ballet's Alice (in Wonderland)!
- 4/10: PlayDC: Long Day's Journey Into Night @ Arena Stage
- 3/22: PHOTOS: Behind The Scenes With PETRUSHKA's Puppeteers
- 3/21: PlayDC: Brother Russia @ Signature Theater
- 3/20: PlayDC: 12 Angry Men @ Keegan Theatre
- 3/19: PLAYDC: Ah, Wilderness! @ Arena Stage
God loves a cheerful giver.
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