Left to right, Caylen Creative, Michelle Avila Navarro and Terrence Zhou co-star in Studio 58’s production of Blood Wedding. (photo by Emily Cooper)
Studio 58, the professional theatre training program at snəw̓eyəɬ leləm̓ Langara College, brings flamenco dance to the stage with Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding Nov. 23-Dec. 3.
Recognized for his surreal and socialist works, Lorca’s Blood Wedding is a tragedy of love, repression and duty. Set in rural Spain, a bride is torn between her fiancé and her former lover, and must balance feuds between the families. Blood Wedding is a poetic play that explores the isolation of loyalty versus personal freedom.
“Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding premièred in 1933, three years before he was assassinated by the fascists during the Spanish Civil War for being a socialist and a gay man,” explains director Carmen Aguirre in the press release. “This play is about forbidden love, resistance to oppressive societal norms and a foreshadowing of the war. I have set the play in an Andalucian bar on the eve of that war, where a group of flamenco dancers, musicians, actors and cantaores tell us this tragic story.”
The Studio 58 production creative team includes lighting designer Itai Erdal, who is a member of the Jewish community.
Blood Wedding will have 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. showtimes. New this season will be a relaxed performance, on Dec. 2, 3 p.m. The show is at Studio 58 at Langara College, 100 West 49th Ave. Tickets (from $10) are available at studio58.ca.
– Courtesy Studio 58