Cappies Review: 'Blood Wedding' at Annandale High School

PHOTO: Maya Koch, Ioana Marin (in back), William Rangel Cardozo/Photo by Daniel Canto of Annandale High School

Cappies review by ERIK WELLS of Lake Braddock Secondary School

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA -- The Bride, the Groom, the wedding band, an ex-boyfriend's revenge scheme and a moon goddess who watches the events unfold from afar. Just your typical wedding stuff, right?

Blood Wedding, a tragedy by the Spanish author Federico Garcia Lorca, was written in 1932 and first performed in Madrid the following year. In 1930s rural Spain, a man known as "the Bridegroom" is engaged to be married to The Bride, but his mother disapproves of the union because of The Bride's previous affair with Leonardo Felix, whose family was responsible for the murder of The Mother's husband. A visit with The Bride and her Father puts the mother at ease, and the wedding proceeds as planned, but Leonardo reappears with some tricks up his sleeve.

Maya Koch masterfully plays the arc of The Mother's downfall. In the first act, she is a strong, proud woman as shown through her upright posture and commanding, if world-weary, tone, but by the end of the play, she is a broken mess who has given up any attempt at sophistication, as showcased in her slacked posture and harsh, biting tone towards The Bride. Another scene-stealer is William Rangel Cardozo as The Father. Cardozo garnered some of the play's biggest laughs with his seemingly jovial tone and "goofy dad" demeanor undercut comically by his frantic bustling and head-wringing during the wedding.

Also worth mentioning are Savannah Gravitt as Leonardo's wife and Anna Castillo as his mother-in-law. The two perform a beautiful, sorrowful duet in their first scene that helps set the stage for the tragedy to come. The entire cast does a great job with stage business, especially in the bigger wedding scenes, where everyone can always be seen performing minor tasks or conversing with other characters even when they aren't in the focus of the scene, and it's details like this that make the play come alive.

The show's prism set, designed by Carson Binkley, was made up of individual periaktos shifted to form the walls of different houses. Installed on the sides of the various periaktos were a window, a kitchen counter, and bookshelves, which helped to make them feel like actual house walls. This was also aided by the grungy shades chosen to paint the prisms, as they made the houses feel lived in. Another eye-catching detail was the intricate tarot card paintings on either side of the stage that helped to foreshadow the play's outcome. Binkley's lighting design effectively created an atmosphere of tension with pulsing red cyclorama lights underscoring a crucial act two fight between the Bridegroom and Leonardo.

William Rangel Cardozo's prop design added authenticity to the show by supplying a real egg to be cooked on stage, which grabbed the audience's attention right at the opening of the play. While the age lines were a bit too prominent on some characters, most of the character makeup felt subtle and natural, for instance The Mother, that helped make her look pale and weary.

The show was aided immensely by a live score, composed by Anna Castillo, and played by four musicians on a raised moon-like platform onstage. Not only did the music help underscore important moments within the play, but it also provided something to entertain the audience during extended scene transitions.If you're looking for a play with a captivating story, skilled acting, and vibrant tech, go see Annandale High School's fall production for a bloody good time!