A-level drama students see new take at Young Vic
Last Thursday, just two weeks after seeing Equus, A-level Drama students found themselves in London once again to see the Young Vic’s new take on Frederico Lorca’s Blood Wedding.
In this new translation by Marina Carr, the early twentieth century Spanish tragedy is transferred from Spain to Ireland, focussing on the love triangle between the sons of two feuding families and the woman to whom one of them is engaged. Though not an entirely seamless transition, relying primarily on the anchor of Catholicism as the base for the transition from Spain to Ireland, director Yaël Farber’s vision allowed the students to see how one might alter a work’s original context and script in order to better communicate the piece’s central themes – in this case to a vastly changed audience from the original 1932 script. The concepts of the irrationality and eternity of vengeance and vendetta, as well as binding oneself within the limits of cultural tradition, are likely much better understood by a London audience when explored within the context of an Irish landscape than a Spanish, potentially calling to mind modern points of controversy regarding Irish marriage and abortion laws.
In addition to allowing for a modern view of the play, Farber’s take also demonstrated the potential for mixing non-naturalistic realisations of a script with some strongly naturalistic performances, intermingling the two contrasting performance styles. The seemingly omnipresent, but ineffectual Moon, played by Thalissa Teixeira, watched on wordlessly from amongst the audience for much of the performance, her dialogue mostly limited to a repeated, sung, Spanish refrain, serving as a constant background reminder of the play’s original context.
Liam Harris, Head of Academic Drama