“She was beautiful, her face shone. I knew her. But I never Liked her. She never loved her Husband.”
In the dry heat of the Andalusian sun a bride decides between love and duty. Unleashing the wrath of ancient feuds set to tear her community apart. The storm of the civil war is brewing across the Sierra mountains. Hatred is all that grows here and the rivers are about to run red.
Summer Company returned in signature bold style with Lorca’s epic tale of intimate fractured lives hurtling desperately towards the inevitable.
Blood Wedding was directed by Soph Jacobs-Wyburn – for more information please contact us via our TRBTS page.
Rehearsal Photography by Chelsey Cliff.
Production Photography by Josh Jackson (BrightSky Film)
The Bridegroom – Alex Robson
The Mother – Angel Johnson
The Neighbours – Rebecca Thurman, Emily Nosworthy
The Mother-In-Law – Austin McClelland Jenkins
The Wife – Willow Fedor
Leonardo – Lucas Kover Wolf
The Maid – Emily Hickman
The Father of the Bride-To-Be – Campbell Maddox
The Bride-To-Be/Bride – Nancy Tait
Youths – Sophie Starkey, Eliza Eaton, Ren raine
Young Man – Gabriel Henshaw
Woodcutters – Axel Bode, Harry Burrows, Fen Lack, Kitty Sidaway, Jess Hyde
The Moon – Ella Thomas, Phoebe Bartlett, Daisy Jackson
The Beggarwoman – Nell Abbey
Backstage
Assistant Stage Managers – Danny Connaire, Isla Robertson, Audrey Hall
LX Operator – Harry King
Sound Operator – Diana Drew
Wardrobe Assistant and Dresser- Lucy Wright
Director’s Notes
Blood Wedding is one of those plays whose spectre stalks the stages of world theatre in a manner that seems initially at odds with it’s very specific historical and cultural origins. It comes ready weighted with a mythology so finely crafted that it could be an invention of it’s brilliant playwright, and has rightly earnt a place in the cannon of modern classics…
Yet at it’s heart it remains a tale of tension and yearning. Generations pulled to their seams between present stability and potential change sit side by side with internal struggles, raging between societal and familial duty, and personal choice and freedom. Some things it would seem never change!
As always our young company has worked with a maturity beyond their years. Their skill and talent are always astounding – but over the past three weeks, I have been struck by their curiosity, empathy, and honesty. The whirling storms of Lorca’s writing have been embodied with a delicate touch, and a great deal of compassion.
Lorca himself knew well the cracked mirror that reflects back at us as we try to navigate through life. He was just 34 years old when he wrote Blood Wedding, famously dashing it out in just one week inspired by a tragic news story. Less than four years later he was dead. Deemed a political risk to rising and powerful right-wing forces that would come to rule Franco’s Spain after the Civil War, Lorca was taken to a rural field and executed. To this day, one of Spain’s greatest literary heroes lies in an unknown, unmarked grave.
And yet, Lorca’s work is infused with a passion for life, a desire for understanding, and asks us to act with purpose. For when you get to the heart of things, you cannot make them disappear.
Assistant Director’s Notes
When Soph first approached me to be assistant director, we dived headlong into the research process. The decision to transplant our story from the 1930s to the 1970s allowed us to make this show our own and inject Lorca’s vibrancy and colour into a world that our young company could take ownership of. Collaborative world building amongst such a dedicated team is one of the numerous reasons I have fallen in love with making shows with young people at the Egg.
To help create a world for our young company to explore and interrogate is one of the most enriching and fascinating parts of making a show. Spain’s history and landscape has always meant a huge amount to me. I have always had family in Spain and I’ve grown up obsessed with books like As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. When I last visited my relatives, I was able to travel to where the murder that inspired Lorca to write Blood Wedding actually happened. When standing in that liminal space I knew that what I wanted to convey in this production was the sense of scale and how when living in isolation, time is everything. When creating a show in such an intensive period, one’s ability to adapt, whether cast or crew, is vital to the process.
These young people continually amaze me with their maturity, creativity and persistence to make the very best show they can. It has been my pleasure to work with and support them and I could not be prouder of them and the work they have produced.
Director/Producer – Soph Jacobs-Wyburn
Co-Producer – James Creed
Assistant Director – Sam Kenyon Hamp
Movement Director – Anna-Louise Fleet
Designer – Roisin Martindale
Costume Supervisor – Kirsty Milne
Costume Assistant – Bethany Boldero
Production Manager – Becky Vowles
Stage Manager – Katie Jones
Lighting Design – Imogen Senter
Sound Design/Composition – Alex Heane
Deputy Stage Manager – Jack Garner-Greene
Backstage coordinator – Toby Mitchell
With special thanks to; leah knight, Bath Spa University, Bath Theatre Academy, crossroads pantomimes, stage sound services, Bristol old vic, enlightened, and all of the loved ones of company members for their support.
Bethany is a costume assistant and maker from the South West currently studying at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Her credits as a costume assistant and maker include:
Nora: A Doll’s House (The Egg), Marie Antoinette (The Egg), Lovelace and Babbage (National Youth Theatre), Macbeth (Bristol Old Vic), Romeo and Juliet (Redgrave Theatre), Bull (Wardrobe Theatre), Catastrophe Bay (Bristol Old Vic), Loam (Bristol Old Vic), Vanity Fair (West Country Tour).
Anna-Louise is currently working as Creative Learning Assistant for The Egg Theatre.
Anna is an actor who trained in Dance with Theatre and Performance at The Guildford School of Acting (2016-2020). She has previously worked in the dance industry as a Tour Manager, Administrator and Social Media Manager for the likes of Tavaziva, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance and Edifice Dance Theatre.
Anna-Louise has experience with Voice Acting, Film, Advertisement and Music Videos; some of her credits include Netflix series Bridgerton (2019-2020) and Sex Education (2019-2021).
Whilst in his final year at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Jack works as a freelance Stage Management practitioner in London and the South West. Jack was a student at the Theatre Royal Bath Theatre School in 2016, and has thoroughly enjoyed returning to the Egg to work professionally with those who mentored him all those years ago. He has also enjoyed leading and mentoring the current backstage and acting students who hope to follow in his footsteps with a career in the theatre and live events industry. Recent theatre credits include: Rehearsal Assistant Stage Manager – Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Piccadilly Theatre), Stage Management Dep – Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Piccadilly Theatre), Deputy Stage Manager – Cinderella (Redgrave Theatre), Assistant Stage Manager – Denis of Penge (Silk Street Theatre), Deputy Stage Manager – Spring Opera Scenes (Guildhall School of Music and Drama), Assistant Stage Manager – The Telephone & Miss Fortune (Silk Street Theatre), Build/Break Crew – The Brit Awards 2021 (London O2 Arena).
Soph is a champion of innate creativity, a theatre-maker and an advocate for creating professional art work with and for all.
A graduate of RCSSD and currently the Head of Community Theatre at TRB, Soph is responsible for the Theatre School and TRB’s extensive training and outreach program. Exceptionally fortunate when in training to be encouraged by teachers and mentors to explore many forms and styles of artistic expression, they are now dedicated to encouraging the same individual exploration of creativity.
Firmly believing in serious playfulness and playful solemnity, Soph specialises in puppetry, theatrical anarchy, and joyful pushing of the boundaries.
Previous directing credits include; ROUTES (The Egg Assembly), Hamlet, Arabian Nights, Folk Lore, Boudica (The Egg – TRBTS), Who Me (WGYTC), Aurora (The Egg), Giovanni (Silent Opera), The Gingerbread Man (Rainbow Collectors). In 2017, Sophie was awarded a Leverhulme Arts Scholarship, working on Medea at Bristol Old Vic.
Recent Credits: Light Falls, (Boomsatsuma/Tobacco Factory Theatre), The Trial of the Shell 7, (Old Theatre Royal), Crimes on Centre Court, (New Old Friends/Bath Theatre Royal), Rats Tales, (Bath Spa Productions/The Egg Theatre), Sparkfest, (Bath Spa Productions), The Government Inspector, (Bath Spa Productions/The Mission Theatre), Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, (Bath Spa Productions/Ustinov Studio).
Sam Kenyon Hamp is a Creative Writing and English Literature (BA) graduate from Brighton University with a focus on incorporating landscape, history and folklore into creative work with young people.
Recent work includes: Assistant Script supervisor, Squirrel (The Egg), Dramaturg, Ghost Stories at The Grapes (The Grapes, Bath), Writer/Dramaturg, Hamelin (The Egg). Future projects include directing Theatre Royal Bath Theatre School’s Spring production of The Selfish Giant.
He is the current Education Officer for the Egg Theatre.
Roisin is a Set and Costume Designer based in South London. Roisin graduated in 2019 with an MA in Performance Design from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Past work at The Egg includes Antigone (2019), The Wardrobe/It Snows Double Bill (2022). Roisin has also worked as a design assistant on Sweeney Todd (2022) and delivered a theatre experience workshop as part of the TRB Theatre Experience Residency. Roisin is very excited to design with the Theatre School Company for the first time on Blood Wedding.
Other recent work includes: Never, Not Once (The Park Theatre, 2022), New Beginnings (The Kiln Youth Programme, 2021) and Design Associate on Big Big Sky (Hampstead Theatre, 2021). Roisin has worked on new writing development with Half Moon Children’s Theatre, Weighed In Productions and is a founding member of Whitecard Collective for Theatre designers. Upcoming non-theatre work includes an exhibit in Hallyu! The Korean Wave (The V&A, London).
Toby is currently working as Creative Learning Assistant for The Egg Theatre.
He trained at Bath Theatre Academy, the Egg’s in house college course (2017-2019). Toby is primarily an actor, recently coming from his first professional job, an R&D with Greedy Pig Theatre Company for their new show, Peacock. Recent acting credits include The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? with Bristol based company the Kelvin Players. Toby also worked backstage on Bath Theatre Academy’s recent show The Sweet Science of Bruising.
Toby has a keen interest in writing, being heavily inspired by the in-yer-face theatre movement, and filmmakers such as Mike Leigh.
Alongside her full time role as Deputy Production Manager at Bristol Old Vic, Imogen is a freelance Lighting Designer. Her recent designs include Anansi and the Big Big Adventure (BOV, 2021), Beauty & The Beast (Living Spit, 2020) and Igloo (Travelling Light 2018, 2020). Imogen is also Co-Director of The Little Things Theatre – a children’s theatre company based in Bristol. They are currently in production of Christmas Trolls which will be performed in venues in the South West this December 2022.
Production Management credits include: Crimes on Centre Court (New Old Friends, Theatre Royal Bath and UK Touring), A Christmas Getaway (New Old Friends, The Ustinov, Theatre Royal Bath), Vixen (Travelling Light Theatre, UK Touring), Crimes in Egypt (New Old Friends, UK Touring), Zero for the Young Dudes & Chaos ( Bath Theatre Academy, the egg), Josephine (the egg & Holm, UK Touring), Crimes on the Nile (New Old Friends, UK Touring), I Wish I Was A Mountain (the egg, Award Winning, Uk and International Touring), The Falcon’s Malteser (New Old Friends & Seabright Productions, The Vaults).
Becky is currently Production Manager for Travelling Light Theatre Company.
Theatre Royal Bath Theatre School aims to offer an inclusive program of training and workshops, that cover all disciplines of theatre-making and are open to any young person aged 5 to 25 years old.
Each week we run over 17 hours of sessions, working directly with young theatre-makers to develop their skills, mentor their artistic growth and support their creative drives. This includes our Backstage program, unique in the South West, offering a dedicated weekly space to learn technical and design led disciplines, as well as the opportunity to apply their skill-set to Theatre School productions wherever possible.
Our curriculum offers structured development of valuable skill-sets, which could be applied across a wide range of life experiences. We also promote an ethos of respect, daring, and self-identity throughout, fostering a sense of community and strong roots to support their growing creativity.
We aim to empower young artists and theatre makers to explore their own unique, capable, and persuasive voices. But we also hope to witness the development of life-long friendships, communities of peers offering support, and building enduring memories.
Our collaboration with Bath College continues to offer the most practical, skills focussed training around.
This full-time Extended Diploma based at Theatre Royal Bath (TRB) is equivalent to 3 A Levels, just like sixth form.
Graduates of our course study at some of the country’s top institutes including RADA and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. As well as furthering their training, we’ve got graduates in lead parts on Netflix shows, running their own theatre companies, and performing across the country.
Quick facts:
When? Starting in September. Two years. Full time (three days a week + two study days).
Where? Based at TRB and Bath College’s city centre campus.
How? You’ll be taught through a mix of practical sessions and tutorials with industry professionals (last year the team included over 60 teachers).
What? You’ll learn about ALL aspects of the industry including voice & movement technique, musical theatre, stage combat and production skills such as technical theatre, lighting design and directing.
Whether you are interested in performing on stage or working behind the scenes, our course centres around practically exploring all aspects of making theatre. The culmination of this is our end of year showcase. Performed at The Egg Theatre at TRB, these professional productions have recently included new writing and adaptations of classics such as Sweeney Todd, A Doll’s House and Dracula.
Our robust educational provision, exceptional course content, and high production values make this course the best choice locally for aspiring theatre makers.
We work with industry professionals and experts to teach the course, and the results are extraordinary!
To find out more about joining us in September:
Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath BA1 1ET.
Theatre Royal Bath is a registered charity no. 277723
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