Blood Wedding
Translated by Gwynne Edwards
This translation of Blood Wedding was first performed at the Contact theatre, Manchester on 11 November 1987, with the following cast:
THE MOTHER | Maureen Morris |
THE BRIDE | Sara Mair Thomas |
THE MOTHER-IN-LAW/GIRL 2 | Anni Domingo |
THE NEIGHBOUR/THE SERVANT | Fenella Norman |
THE WIFE OF LEONARDO | Charlotte Harvey |
GIRL 1/DEATH(as a beggar woman) | Joan Carol Williams |
LEONARDO | Tyrone Huggins |
THE BRIDEGROOM | Ewen Cummins |
THE FATHER OF THE BRIDE/THE MOON | Wyllie Longmore |
YOUTH | Mark Crowshaw |
WOODCUTTERS/GIRLS/GUESTS played by members of the Company
Directed by Anthony Clark
Designed by Nettie Edwards
Musical Director/Composer Mark Vibrans
Lighting by Stephen Henbest
Choreography by David Needham
Act One
Scene One
Room painted yellow.
BRIDEGROOM (entering). Mother.
MOTHER. What?
BRIDEGROOM. Iām going.
MOTHER. Where to?
BRIDEGROOM. To the vineyard. (He starts to go out.)
MOTHER. Wait.
BRIDEGROOM. Do you want something?
MOTHER. Son, your breakfast.
BRIDEGROOM. Leave it. Iāll eat grapes. Give me the knife.
MOTHER. What for?
BRIDEGROOM (laughing). To cut them.
MOTHER (muttering and looking for it). The knife, the knife ā¦ Damn all of them and the scoundrel who invented them.
BRIDEGROOM. Letās change the subject.
MOTHER. And shotguns . . and pistols ā¦ even the tiniest knife ā¦ and mattocks and pitchforks ā¦
BRIDEGROOM. Alright.
MOTHER. Everything that can cut a manās body. A beautiful man, tasting the fullness of life, who goes out to the vineyards or tends to his olives, because they are his, inherited ā¦
BRIDEGROOM (lowering his head). Be quiet.
MOTHER. ā¦ and that man doesnāt come back. Or if he does come back itās to put a palm-leaf on him or a plateful of coarse salt to stop him swelling. I donāt know how you dare carry a knife on your body, nor how I can leave the serpent inside the chest.
BRIDEGROOM. Is that it?
MOTHER. If I lived to be a hundred, I wouldnāt speak of anything else. First your father. He had the scent of carnation for me, and I enjoyed him for three short years. Then your brother. Is it fair? Is it possible that a thing as small as a pistol or a knife can put an end to a man whoās a bull? Iāll never be quiet. The months pass and hopelessness pecks at my eyes ā¦ even at the roots of my hair.
BRIDEGROOM (forcefully). Are you going to stop?
MOTHER. No. I wonāt stop. Can someone bring your father back to me? And your brother? And then thereās the gaol. What is the gaol? They eat there, they smoke there, they play instruments there. My dead ones full of weeds, silent, turned to dust; two men who were two geraniums ā¦ The murderers, in gaol, as large as life, looking at the mountains ā¦
BRIDEGROOM. Do you want me to kill them?
MOTHER. Noā¦ If I speak itās because ā¦ How am I not going to speak seeing you go out of that door? I donāt like you carrying a knife. Itās just that ā¦ I wish you wouldnāt go out to the fields.
BRIDEGROOM (laughing). Come on!
MOTHER. Iād like you to be a woman. You wouldnāt be going to the stream now and the two of us would embroider edgings and little woollen dogs.
BRIDEGROOM (he puts his arm around his mother and laughs). Mother, what if I were to take you with me to the vineyards?
MOTHER. What would an old woman do in the vineyards? Would you put me under the vine-shoots?
BRIDEGROOM (lifting her in his arms). You old woman, you old, old woman, you old, old, old woman.
MOTHER. Your father, now he used to take me there. Thatās good stock. Good blood. Your grandfather left a son on every street corner. Thatās what I like. Men to be men; wheat wheat.
BRIDEGROOM. What about me, mother?
MOTHER. You? What?
BRIDEGROOM. Do I need to tell you again?
MOTHER (serious). Ah!
BRIDEGROOM. Do you think itās a bad idea?
MOTHER. No.
BRIDEGROOM. Well then?
MOTHER. Iām not sure. Itās so sudden like this. Itās taken me by surprise. I know that the girlās good. She is, isnāt she? Well-behaved. Hard-working. She makes her bread and she sews her skirts. But even so, when I mention her name, itās as if they were pounding my head with a stone.
BRIDEGROOM. Donāt be s...