The Bride and the Moon
Devised in response to Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding
East 15 Acting School · MA Acting · Corbett Theatre · 2023
East 15 Acting School · MA Acting · Corbett Theatre · 2023
A devised response to Lorca’s Blood Wedding, exploring grief, memory and cycles of trauma through a world where the same tragedy is destined to repeat itself again and again.
The ProductionBride and the Moon began with Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding, but rather than staging the play itself, we used it as a starting point for creating something new.
Working collaboratively with the ensemble, we devised around Lorca’s story through improvisation, original writing, music and physical exploration. The performers brought their own material into the room, which we shaped together into a new piece that retained the tragedy, poetry and heightened imagery of Blood Wedding while creating its own theatrical world. At the centre of our version was Death — the original Bride — trapped in a cycle by the Moon and forced to watch the deaths of the people she loves play out again and again. Around her, three Brides, three Leonardos and three Grooms became different echoes of the same story. The production became an exploration of grief as repetition: how trauma can trap us inside a moment, how memory continually reshapes what has happened, and what it might take to finally break the cycle. |
|
Making the Story Together
The piece was created collaboratively with the ensemble in response to Lorca’s Blood Wedding. Through improvisation, writing, movement and music, the actors generated material in response to the characters, relationships and themes within the original play. Their own writing became part of the final piece, allowing our version of the story to grow directly from the company creating it.
My role was to provide the structures and provocations that could generate material, then to shape those discoveries into a coherent theatrical language and narrative. We were continually asking what belonged to Lorca, what belonged to us, and how the two could speak to one another.
My role was to provide the structures and provocations that could generate material, then to shape those discoveries into a coherent theatrical language and narrative. We were continually asking what belonged to Lorca, what belonged to us, and how the two could speak to one another.
|
|
|
Echoes of the Same StoryRather than following one Bride, Leonardo and Groom, we created three versions of each. They weren't simply different actors sharing the same role; they became echoes of the same relationships repeating across the world of the piece.
That repetition allowed us to explore cycles of trauma physically as well as narratively. Patterns could recur between different bodies, relationships could mirror one another, and moments could feel simultaneously new and already remembered. At the centre was Death, who had once been the Bride herself. While everyone else continued through the cycle, she remembered. The tragedy wasn't simply that her loved ones died — it was that she knew they would die and was forced to experience their loss again. |
Death + the Moon
Death and the Moon became the two figures existing outside the repeating versions of the story. Death was caught inside her grief, while the Moon held her there, forcing the cycle to continue.
I was interested in grief as something that can distort our relationship with time. Loss doesn't necessarily remain in the past; memory can return us to it without warning, making something that happened years ago feel suddenly present again.
The loop gave us a theatrical way of exploring that experience. Each repetition brought Death back to the same inevitable ending, surrounded by different versions of the people she had lost but unable to change what happened.
The question became whether remembering someone means holding onto the moment you lost them — or whether eventually you have to let the story move forward.
I was interested in grief as something that can distort our relationship with time. Loss doesn't necessarily remain in the past; memory can return us to it without warning, making something that happened years ago feel suddenly present again.
The loop gave us a theatrical way of exploring that experience. Each repetition brought Death back to the same inevitable ending, surrounded by different versions of the people she had lost but unable to change what happened.
The question became whether remembering someone means holding onto the moment you lost them — or whether eventually you have to let the story move forward.
|
The Storytelling SpaceEverything in our world was created from chairs.
Rather than using them simply as furniture, the ensemble continually rearranged and transformed them to create the places, objects and images the story required. The simplicity gave the production the feeling of a storytelling space: a company gathering together with whatever they had and asking the audience to imagine alongside them. Shadow play extended that language further, allowing bodies and objects to become images that could appear and disappear like memories. Nothing needed to become completely literal. The actors, the chairs, light and shadow gave us enough to tell the story. |
Music from Lorca
Original music developed alongside the rest of the piece during the devising process. We drew lyrics from both Blood Wedding and Lorca’s poetry, transforming his words into songs that could exist inside the world we were creating.
Rather than adding music once the piece had been structured, it emerged from the same exploration as the writing and movement. The songs became another way of carrying Lorca into our version of the story — allowing his language to remain present even as we moved away from the original play.
Music also gave the ensemble another way to hold memory. Words could return as melody, repeat across the piece and take on different meanings as the cycle began again.
Rather than adding music once the piece had been structured, it emerged from the same exploration as the writing and movement. The songs became another way of carrying Lorca into our version of the story — allowing his language to remain present even as we moved away from the original play.
Music also gave the ensemble another way to hold memory. Words could return as melody, repeat across the piece and take on different meanings as the cycle began again.
Building the World
The world of Bride and the Moon was deliberately abstract, allowing design, movement, voice, music and shadow to create a space suspended between Lorca’s original story and the new piece we were building around it. The simplicity of the environment kept the performers at the centre, allowing bodies, chairs, light and sound to continually reshape the world.
Creative
Original Source: Federico García Lorca, Blood Wedding
Director / Deviser: Kay Brattan
Devised by: Kay Brattan and the Ensemble
Original Writing: The Ensemble
Set Design: Mila Sanders
Costume Design: Kit Hinchcliffe
Movement Direction: Luis Odriozola
Fight Direction: Lawrence Carmichael
Vocal Coach: Colin Sadler
Original Music: The Ensemble
Photos by Andrew H Williams
Company
MA Acting Programme 22/23· 12 actors
Creative
Original Source: Federico García Lorca, Blood Wedding
Director / Deviser: Kay Brattan
Devised by: Kay Brattan and the Ensemble
Original Writing: The Ensemble
Set Design: Mila Sanders
Costume Design: Kit Hinchcliffe
Movement Direction: Luis Odriozola
Fight Direction: Lawrence Carmichael
Vocal Coach: Colin Sadler
Original Music: The Ensemble
Photos by Andrew H Williams
Company
MA Acting Programme 22/23· 12 actors
