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Bodas de Sangre ('Blood Wedding') is a play by the Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1932, and first performed in 1933. Bodas de Sangre is the first play of García Lorca's trilogy of rural tragedies. Yerma and La Casa de Bernarda Alba are the second and third plays, respectively, of the trilogy.

A generally well-regarded opera version of the play, by Hungarian composer Sandor Szokolay, was first produced in Budapest in 1964 and has seen scattered performances since.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Plot 3 Characters 4 Symbolism 5 Themes 6 Editions available 7 Film versions 8 Broadway 9 External links

Lorca's inspiration for the plot of Bodas de sangre came from a newspaper article that detailed a crime which happened in the Andalusian town of Níjar.

This is a play about the classic story of a young woman who is not allowed to marry her lover and is instead engaged to a more suitable man whom she does not love. However, her heart has already been taken by her lover. On the day of her wedding she runs away with her lover, Leonardo, the husband of her cousin. Her cousin not only has a child with Leonardo, but is pregnant with another. Interesting events ensue after the wedding commences.

None of the characters in the play has names except for the lover, Leonardo - the rest are named according to who they play, such as La Novia (The Bride), El Novio (The Bridegroom) and La Madre (The Mother).

• La Madre - The Mother
• La Novia - The Bride
• La Suegra - The Mother-in-law
• La Mujer De Leonardo - Leonardo's wife
• La Criada - The Maid
• La Vecina - The Neighbor (woman)
• Muchachas - Girls
• Leonardo
• El Novio - The Groom
• El Padre De La Novia - The Father of The Bride
• La Luna - The Moon
• La Muerte (como mendiga) - Death (as a beggar)
• Leñadores - Woodcutters
• Mozos - Boys

Like the other plays by Lorca which form part of his rural trilogy the majority of the characters within Bodas de sangre are women.

Like many other of Lorca's plays and poetry, Bodas is filled with symbolism. The characters of The Moon and Death are such examples of the personification of symbols. Other such symbols are orange blossoms, which represent innocence and the sanctity of wedding vows, and the color white, which represents purity.

One main theme is revenge. La Novia's actions are unacceptable to society; therefore, she must pay. El Novio and Leonardo die in a duel and La Madre is devastated. La Novia begs that La Madre kill her in the end but La Madre no longer cares for revenge, having no-one left of her family to care for. La Novia returns to the village, presumably to be killed to "restore the honor" of the family, although this is never made explicit.

García Lorca, Federico - Bodas de sangre (Alianza Editorial, S.A.) ISBN 84-206-6101-5
García Lorca, Federico - Bodas de sangre (Ediciones Catedra, S.A.) ISBN 84-376-0560-1
García Lorca, Federico - Bodas de sangre (Ediciones Colihue SRL) ISBN 950-581-110-1

The play was adapted into a Spanish film in 1938, with Margarita Xirgu repeating her stage role. In 1981, Spanish film director Carlos Saura directed a dance film inspired by the play (also entitled Bodas de sangre).

The play, retitled Bitter Oleander, had a brief run in an English translation on Broadway in 1935. Beatrice Straight made her Broadway debut in this version.

• The text of the original play can be found here: [1] (in Spanish)