Blood Wedding Concept & Director’s Notes

Anjalee Deshpande Hutchinson
Bucknell University, Spring 2009

BLOOD WEDDING
Concept Notes (for Designers and Ensemble Members)

“How did I get here? I did what I was told, I followed all the rules. I did everything right. How could my life have turned out so wrong?”

From the moment we are first aware of ourselves as individuals within a greater society, we are trained that there are acceptable and non-acceptable choices that dictate our chosen paths. Who we can be with, where we can live, where we got to school and what our profession will be. In the eyes of our families and our communities there are “right” and “wrong” life choices. Although these ideas may vary from one community to the next, every society has it’s codified set of beliefs. What if these external dictates do not match our internal compass? What if we are pulled from deep in our being towards choosing the unfamiliar or untraditional? What happens when we choose to live or love in ways foreign to our upbringing? We may find happiness. We may not. Resisting risk in order to protect ourselves is also a risk. Tradition promises a safety that it cannot always deliver. Abandoning societal dictates to pursue our desires is just as dangerous as wrapping ourselves in tradition in the hopes that nothing will ever change. When the choice to reconcile our inner needs with our outside obligations is both recognized and supported by our community, both individual and society prosper. But when tradition becomes a knife and severs the soul from it’s desire, no one is safe from the bloodshed.

The soul in Lorca’s Blood Wedding lives in the Blood. Pumping and throbbing and pushing and pulling, it rushes through our veins at the very core of who we are. It is what keeps us alive, and it is the reason we live. Many see the title as a literal interpretation of the massacre that occurs during the marriage ceremony, but I embrace the metaphor that binds Leonardo and the Bride with their truest most primal needs and desires. This metaphor pits the whole of their culture and society against their thirst within their souls. The two of them are already married, they have a wedding of the Blood – they are connected and united beyond a shadow of a doubt and everyone knows it. The attempt to separate them leads to tragedy for all. In the end neither those that chose tradition nor those that choose to resist tradition succeed. The reason is that somehow the two are connected. Blood cannot live without the body, body cannot live without blood.


BLOOD WEDDING
Director’s Note (Included in Production Program)

It might not seem like it, but this play is about you. Well, more accurately it is about us. We hear the words “Blood Wedding” and read the play and assume the story is a warning. But a warning for what? What happens when we follow our desires and ignore the concerns of our family and loved ones? What happens when we abandon our souls desires in order to succumb to the pressures of our society? Both these assumptions don’t fulfill the fullest nature of this story. They are not enough. As one of my students so aptly stated: There would have been a sad end no matter what she decided. This, I think is the heart of our problem, this wedding is not about the bride or the groom, rather it is about the community that surrounds them.

Lorca wrote the play in 1932, based off a newspaper article he read about a wedding torn apart by rival clans. Four years later, Lorca was abducted and murdered by the regime of Francisco Franco. Francisco Franco was the dictator and Head of State for Spain from 1936 until 1975. His rule focused on traditional values, preserving cultural hierarchies and moral ideals. Some say Lorca was murdered because of his ties to the “ Popular Front” a left wing political organization that opposed Franco. However the facts remain that he was apolitical and had friends in both parties. The more common belief was that he was murdered for his ideas, so vividly expressed in Blood Wedding. These ideas did not condone breaking from society, neither did they advocate for submitting to all cultural norms. Rather, Lorca seemed to be saying, something is wrong here, why does our community not support our soul’s desires? Why can we not find a way to support each other as well as what we hold true? Can anyone truly prosper when tradition becomes a knife that separates the community from its members? The poetry of Blood Wedding speaks directly of this “dismemberment.”

As a sons and daughters we often make choices based on what is expected of us rather than what we know to be our soul’s desire. As parents, we find ourselves withholding approval and support when our children’s ideas conflict with ours or when we believe they’re safety or overall well-being is threatened. Yet imagine if instead of making our choices as a gift to our parents, we made them as gifts to our children – what would my future child want me to do? What if as parents we were promised every happiness for our child and their ultimate (if not immediate) well-being if only we give our unconditional love and support. I am not saying this is easy. I am not saying it is completely attainable. I look at my parents and I am still worried about disappointing them. I look at my son and I am terrified that he will be hurt. Perhaps where we should all be looking is in the mirror, asking of ourselves how much faith we are capable of having. Ultimately, nothing can survive so long as that divide exists.