Blood Wedding, performed at New Greenham Arts Centre on 27th & 28th July, truly captivated and enthralled the audience over its short, hour-long production.

It was another in a long line of outstanding performances from Shining Lights Youth Theatre, and the first to be ambitiously directed by Charlotte Allen. Her stripped down, intimate approach bought the cast and audience closer together, as without a backstage area we were able to observe the actors throughout the performance.

It's hard to believe that Miss Allen is only 22 years old and this is her first foray as a director, as both the subtlety and drama of the play was carried out at full force. The stark, bleak backdrop and staging amplified the raw emotion presented in Federico Garcia Lorca's play.

Blood Wedding was inspired after a newspaper account of a bride in Spain who abandoned her husband on their wedding day to escape with her childhood sweetheart. The play, adapted for this production by Daryl Hurst, expands on these themes of love, betrayal and lust.

It centres on a Son and his widowed, bitter Mother, and the Son's plans to marry. The Mother, excellently portrayed by Poppy Jermaine, is fighting desperately to keep her son away from the violence that caused the death of his father and brother, and is initially reluctant to let him leave, especially as it would mean her own abandonment. However, after a meeting with the young bride and her father, she relents, and the date is set.

Through the Servant, played with a cheerful air which gives a welcome relief to the rest of the themes presented by the play by Bobbie Anderson, we learn that the Bride has still been meeting with her childhood sweetheart, the deeply troubled and menacing Leonardo (played by Tom Serruya). He himself is battling with his marriage and his feelings towards the Bride.

As the story reaches the wedding day, the Bride's despair about her predicament grows to fever pitch, and Freya Poole shows her anguish and torment with great dignity and understanding. When Leonardo approaches her after she is married, the two run away together. As the jilted Son, Elliot Laker, decides to give chase, the tension changes dramatically. There is also a change in approach, as the events are relayed by three ethereal, manic wood cutters, each (Holly Lucas, Anna Roberts and Abi Kalikwani) showing new depths in their respective performances after their earlier roles.

Caz Harrold gives a brief, but moving and haunting turn as the Moon, appearing after this claustrophobic change in tempo. She is joined by Death (Karim Newton), another complete change from his earlier appearance as the well meaning and ambitious Father. This menacing presence signals the death of both the Son and Leonardo, despite Death's weapon of choice appearing to be kitchen knives, as the chase reaches its inevitable end.

There is a horrible familiarity as the women congregate together and mourn at the end of the fateful evening. The Mother, who has fought to keep her Son from the violence she knew would inevitably take his life, gives little comfort to the Bride as she deals with the consequences of her actions. All are portrayed with real depth and feeling by this young cast, as yet another excellent production by Shining Lights draws to a close.

Jennifer Collins - Newbury August 2010