Review: BLOOD WEDDING at Shaking The Tree

Every time I go to Shaking the Tree, I wonder what surprises, delights, and disturbances artistic director Samantha Van Der Merwe and her highly creative crew have in store for us. Federico García Lorca's BLOOD WEDDING, now on stage, has its fair share of all three.

BLOOD WEDDING was written in 1932, on the cusp of the Spanish Civil War. It opens with The Mother (played by Louisa Sermol at her finest), who lost both her husband and one son to previous wars, lamenting that she’s about to lose another son, The Bridegroom (a very charming Rocco Weyer), to marriage. The Bride (Olivia Mathews) had previously been linked to another young man, Leonardo (the only named character, played by Orlando Reyes Cabrera), but that was a few years back and no one knows quite what happened. What we do know is that The Bride is a “good” girl (i.e., a virgin), from a good family, and it looks like a good match. But, as you can probably tell from the title, things don’t work out well.

This play contains multitudes. It’s a story of love, family, and life in a town where everyone knows all of your business. It’s also a powerful comment on the destructive power of passion, both when it’s repressed and when it’s allowed to erupt into violence – the play is very anti-war. I also found it surprisingly feminist, especially for the time. The women are the strongest characters in this play, and of course they’re left cleaning up all of the many messes the men make.

I’m not going to give away any surprises, so let’s talk about the delights and disturbances. 

Delights (in addition to the actors mentioned before): Josie Seid, who provided excellent comic relief as The Maid; Bobby Bermea as the incredibly earnest Father of the Bride-to-be; the music – each act starts with music, played by the actors, which sets the scene for what’s to come; the design, which extends far beyond the norm; the students from The Actor’s Conservatory – I love seeing the new faces that will populate our stages in the future.

Disturbances: The violence – there’s no actual violence in the play, but there are plenty of reminders about the damage an armed, angry person can do; the relevance – this play was written more than 90 years ago, but the themes still resonate; the design, which is also a surprise and a delight.

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