Introduction & Overview of Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca

Blood Wedding Introduction

Blood Wedding, completed in 1932, premiered in Madrid in 1933. Its popular success was such that Lorca was able to support himself from proceeds stemming from his writing for the first time. Its success also demonstrates the degree to which large Spanish audiences, by 1933, were highly receptive to the innovations in theater and literature that had been developing since the turn of the century. The play incorporates song, chant, poetry, music, and rhythm, and its action and sets are highly symbolic and stylized. These non-realistic and anti-naturalistic techniques capitalized on drama as a live event. As opposed to a play whose actions and sets seemed exactly like things in everyday life, Lorca's audience witnessed the stage exploited for all of its sensate and dramatic potentialities.

While some argue that the play treats certain universal themes, others disagree with this point of view, seeing it instead as a veiled...
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