2008 Woodie Awards
Lorca in a Green Dress goes not gently
Play challenges its audience members with rich symbolism
Darwyyn Deyo
Issue date: 5/2/06 Section: Detour
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Last week the Performing Arts Department presented a daring rendition of Lorca in a Green Dress, written by Nilo Cruz and directed by Rebecca Engle. It is the story of Federico García Lorca, a man who during the Spanish Civil War is tried and murdered by state extremists for his politics through poetry. Imbued with Lorca's own work, the folk culture of Spain, and the literal colors of Lorca's imagination, Lorca in a Green Dress claimed the house with the fluid performance of actors in a magnetized story that stomped forth from the pages of the script with intense eyes and rhythmic clapping.
The story begins with Lorca waking from what he and the audience must 'accept' as his death. The play cleverly transfers to the audience a fusion of resistance to death with resistance to the fascist regime. Alex Kirschner '06 plays the defiant and metaphoric Lorca in his quarantine, the Lorca Room, which is a place to separate oneself from life before moving elsewhere. The room, along with the description of his Gypsy arrival, pays heed to the defense of Gypsies that eventually killed Lorca, and which Kirschner captures as part of Lorca even in death. Kirschner's stunning performance, however expected, is part of what made this play take theatre to a new level.
The Spanish Gypsy culture is paid heed to by the whole chorus throughout the play, a chorus composed of five interpretations of Lorca and two guards in the guise of fascist soldiers. Those five interpretations present Lorca as a Flamenco Dancer, as a Boy in Bicycle Pants, as a Woman, in a White Suit, and in a Green Dress. The Lorcan chorus represents the poet from his cultural, dream-making, female, political, and homosexual perspectives as the members try to help him distinguish and accept his life and death. Vivacious and colorful as Lorca himself, they draw the audience into Lorca's passion and death as it also connects the audience with visual ties to Lorca's determination to defend and protect the Spain he loves.
The story begins with Lorca waking from what he and the audience must 'accept' as his death. The play cleverly transfers to the audience a fusion of resistance to death with resistance to the fascist regime. Alex Kirschner '06 plays the defiant and metaphoric Lorca in his quarantine, the Lorca Room, which is a place to separate oneself from life before moving elsewhere. The room, along with the description of his Gypsy arrival, pays heed to the defense of Gypsies that eventually killed Lorca, and which Kirschner captures as part of Lorca even in death. Kirschner's stunning performance, however expected, is part of what made this play take theatre to a new level.
The Spanish Gypsy culture is paid heed to by the whole chorus throughout the play, a chorus composed of five interpretations of Lorca and two guards in the guise of fascist soldiers. Those five interpretations present Lorca as a Flamenco Dancer, as a Boy in Bicycle Pants, as a Woman, in a White Suit, and in a Green Dress. The Lorcan chorus represents the poet from his cultural, dream-making, female, political, and homosexual perspectives as the members try to help him distinguish and accept his life and death. Vivacious and colorful as Lorca himself, they draw the audience into Lorca's passion and death as it also connects the audience with visual ties to Lorca's determination to defend and protect the Spain he loves.