Love Under a Cold Moon: 'Blood Wedding'

IF YOU DON'T SPEAK SPANISH, you might need to see the Gala Hispanic Theatre's production of Federico Garcia Lorca's "Blood Wedding" a few times to take it all in. While the theater does provide surtitles, reading them means missing much of the action below.

Hugo Medrano's direction of the classic 1932 romantic tragedy excels in sheer beauty and with emotional pull. Giorgio Tsappas' sparse, arid set design and Martha Mountain and Klyph Stanford's stage lighting transport the audience to Andalusia, the setting for a doomed wedding between a woman still grappling with her affections for a former paramour, and a virile young lad who, despite his mother's reticence about the bride, is madly in love.

With themes of individual desire versus societal mores, and clandestine love, one can trace hot-blooded telenovelas back to this high-end melodrama. But, through Medrano's masterful direction and the deft acting of Frank Vélez Rodriguez (the bridegroom), Maria Victoria Peña (the mother), Karen Morales-Chacana (the bride) and Carlos Castillo (Leonardo, the bride's ex), the carnage mutates from meaningless gore to surrealistic evocation of emotions.

In one of the most gripping scenes, Leonardo and the bride are on the run and fearing for their lives. As the couple skulks through the shadowy forest, the moon and death conspire to reveal their whereabouts. It's one of the many transfixing scenes that cast a spell on Spanish and non-Spanish speakers alike.

» Gala Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW; through April 27, $20-$30; 800-494-8497.

Written by Express contributor John Murph
Photo courtesy Daniel Troconis