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By Ellie Louise Danson
Image: Manchester School of Theatre
HOME recently played host to the next generation of actors as the Manchester School of Theatre brought their adaption of two of Frederico Garcia Lorca’s plays to the stage. Director Alan Dunett took the brave decision to present the two hour-long plays, Doña Rosita the Spinster and Blood Wedding, together and the talent looked promising in both performances.
Lorca is one of Spain’s most renowned poets, playwrights and theatre directors. In these plays, dark and mythical symbols such as knives and blood, combined with the poetic nature of the playwright’s words, result in a deep-rooted message. Lorca was often very sympathetic of women and most of his work gave a personal insight into life in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century. Lorca was executed during the Spanish Civil War just a year after he had written Doña Rosita.
The lighting and set captured the mood of what was to come. Set designer Olivia Du Monceau did a fantastic job in transporting the audience back to a typical 20th century farmhouse with grey, stone walls and the featured pieces of furniture for the first play were traditional and effective. The set had an earthy feel, which is what Lorca might have strived for with his apparent love of nature and plants.
Dona Rosita the Spinster is not one of Lorca’s most well known plays but all the actors involved displayed the characteristics of a Lorca play well. Brogan Bailey who played the Housekeeper bought moments of comedic value to her role and became the backbone of the play, deliberately saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Another notable performance was given by Matthew Gee who played the Uncle. Gee carried himself in exactly the right manner and brought some moments of brilliance to the stage in his interaction with the Aunt, played by Lucy Padwick.
The play took a while to get going but, once it did, there was a great scene where neighbours and family members came to visit Doña Rosita, played brilliantly by Yasmin Mwanza. The actors picked up on their cues at just the right time, causing laughter in the audience.
After the interval, the actors returned for one of Lorca’s most commercially successful plays Blood Wedding. This play had a quicker pace from the off with Elaine McNicol playing a troubled, bitter old woman who engaged the audience from the first scene. Director Dunett, however, had taken the decision to use a West Country accent in this production, in contrast to the previous play, which some of the actors did seem to find difficult to sustain.
Overall, these productions of Lorca’s work resulted in good, solid performances from the Manchester School of Theatre cast and the actors managed to present what, at times, were slow plays, with confidence and conviction.
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