BLOOD WEDDING, Federico García Lorca

Federico García Lorca

Blood wedding

From: 23 February 2022

There are terrible days ahead.

Rural Andalusia. The wedding is over and the guests are dancing, enjoying the happy event. But the bride, with the wreath of flowers still in her hair, abandons the groom. Her former fiancé, Leonardo, carries her off on horseback, while the groom chases them into the dark forest where they seek refuge. Nature will betray the transgressors and the cycle of revenge will be complete, confirming that it is the fate of young men to die by an inanimate knife that thirsts for blood and of women to grow old alone, waiting stoically for the end. The two men are dead and the bride, still a virgin, but dishonoured, will remain in the house forever, like the groomΆs mother, whom death has robbed of all the men in her family.

The great Spanish poet's play is about absolute love that goes beyond barriers, laws and reason. In the ruggedness of the Andalusian landscape and the harshness of unwritten laws, death is the final outcome of the struggle between the unstoppable momentum of passion and stagnated institutions.

Blood Wedding, arguably LorcaΆs finest play and certainly his most frequently performed in Greece, is a rural tragedy. Written in 1932, at a political watershed for Spain, it became an era-defining play and influenced modern theatre like few other works. Greek audiences were introduced to it in 1947, in a historic production directed by Karolos Koun, while it was first staged at the National Theatre of Greece in 1981, when the director was Alexis Solomos.

Production team

Translation: Efi Giannopoulou

Director: Maria Manganari

Sets: Clio Boboti

Costumes: Angelos Mentis

Music: Martha Mavroidi

Lighting: Lefteris Pavlopoulos
Music coach: Melina Paionidou

Directing assistant:  Maria Gozavinou

Set designer assistant: Filanthi Bougatsou
Costume designer assistant: Kalliopi Vlamaki

Production dramaturg: Vivi Spathoula

The cast (in alphabetical order):

Vangelis Abatzis, Noni Ioannidou, Maria Kechagioglou, Syrmo Keke, Efstathia Lagiokapa, Petros Malamas, Nikolas Papagiannis, Giannis Samsiaris, Maria Skoula, Dimitra Vlagkopoulou