Every year, St. Edward’s University Theater Arts majors work with professionals in the theater industry to put on dynamic works in Mary Moody Northen Theatre. The second of this year’s four plays is “Blood Wedding,” directed by Robert Tolaro.

“Bodas de Sangre,” or “Blood Wedding,” is a tragedy written by the Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca. The play is centered around the wedding day of the Bride (La Novia) and Groom (El Novio). At first, The Mother of The Groom does not approve of The Bride, especially since she was previously involved with Leonardo, a relative of the Felix family who killed her husband and other son, but The Mother decides to give her a chance.

Leading up to her wedding day, The Bride seems nervous about getting married. After the wedding, The Bride flees with Leonardo, and The Groom must hunt them down.

The fact that all the “devious “ characters are played by women is not a coincidence. The Bride, Death and Moon are symbols of destruction, specifically of men, in the play. This asserts the theme that women are the source of all temptation and evil.

It was also interesting that all the characters, except for one, did not have specific names. Other than Leonardo, everyone else is known by the role they play. But the performers did a good job at identifying their relationships to one another, so no one was confused.

The choice of play was definitely appropriate for this campus. St. Edward’s is a Hispanic-serving community, and a majority of the students are Spanish speakers, so a play by Lorca was a good pick. Even though the play was mostly in English, the sprinkling of Spanish lines was a nice touch, especially during passionate scenes. There are also interjecting scenes of song and traditional dance which added to the authenticity of the play.

Some of the accents needed a bit of work, but other than that, there is really nothing negative to say about the performance. The actors did a good job of opening up to the audience, which is a difficult task considering it is a round theater. The emotion was real. The props were minimalist, and yet did their job well.

The play did not have an intermission, but it is a shorter play than others the theater has put on in the past, so this was not a problem. The characters did a good job at keeping the audience engaged. There was never a boring moment and the audiene seemed engaged from start to finish. Overall, the play was well executed, and I would recommend seeing it.

“Blood Wedding” is playing Nov. 14-24 at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre.