Blood Wedding - 2005 Almeida Theatre

Genre: Drama
Opened 12 May 2005
Written: a new version by Tanya Ronder of Federico Garcia Lorca's play 'Bodas De Sangre'
Directed: Rufus Norris
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal as 'Leonardo'
Synopsis:Based on the explosive story of a wedding party in rural Spain.

What the critics had to say.....
CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "The coup-de-foudre at the centre of the play proves a desperately damp squib, and without the required sexual fire to distract and dazzle the viewer, the many other shortcomings of the production become glaringly obvious....Norris, one of our most distinguished young directors, seems all at sea. His bizarre international casting ...ensures a ludicrous variety of fractured English and no sense whatever that Lorca's tragedy is rooted in the heat and dust of southern Spain." BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, "Tanya Ronder has trimmed one or two of Lorca's more poetic moments, her translation has the punch and power of what remains an astonishingly bold and often beautiful modern tragedy." PAUL TAYLOR for THE INDEPENDENT says, "Brilliantly imaginative production......[Gael Garcia] Bernal hasn't sufficient stage presence to convince as an homme fatale and his delivery of the English script has developed intonation patterns that aren't always in sync with the natural emphases in the lines." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "Intriguing but only partially successful new production......where Lorca's play slowly edges towards symbolism, Norris's production strives almost too hard to mix the real and the surreal.....There are, in short, many good things in Norris's production: strong images, haunting sound, a resonant text...."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Independent
The Guardian
The Times
Daily Telegraph