Distracting Nuptials

* Two acts, in blood.

Shotgun deserves credit for staging Lorca, but it's all a bit too confusing at times.
By Sam Hurwitt
Published: March 28, 2007

We don't get nearly enough chances to see the plays of Federico García Lorca, so it's to Shotgun Players' credit that they're kicking off their sixteenth season with the Spanish poet's 1933 Blood Wedding in an English translation by Michael Dewell and Carmen Zapata.

Details:
Written by Federico García Lorca
Directed by Evren Odcikin
At the Ashby Stage through April 22
510-841-6500 or ShotgunPlayers.org
Subject(s): Blood Wedding

One reason Lorca's plays are rarely staged is that they're difficult to pull off. Written largely in poetic declarations, the dialogue isn't at all naturalistic, and the characters are more archetypes than personalities; it's a delicate balance not to make them cartoonish. Erin Gilley and Ryan O'Donnell aptly embody the nervous bride and groom (despite Gilley's distracting wig), but the portrayal of romantic rival Leonardo (the only character with a name) by John-Paul Goorjian is pure soap-opera melodrama.

(leer +) [vía eastbayexpress]

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