Taste Of Chaos

“A beautiful medley of chaos, Latin-flavoured chaos.” That's how Nicole Da Silva describes the atmosphere in the rehearsal room of the Malthouse's Blood Wedding. Noise, animation and passion are the order of the day, as an international cast of Spanish-speaking actors prepare to bring Lorca's classic play to the stage.

Da Silva plays the wife of Leonardo, a character who is, as she puts it, “on the blunt end of a forbidden relationship”. It's a departure from familiar ground for the actress, whose television roles have included a private detective and a police constable. “It's lovely to be playing someone who is a little more vulnerable. This role encapsulates a more womanly, maternal side of me that I haven't been able to express yet.”

Director Marion Potts has made some bold casting choices, and Da Silva is full of praise for the decision to bring on board actors who break the mould, including Italian Silvia Colloca and Spaniard Mariola Fuentes. “There's a very conservative casting culture in Australia, with a real tendency to stick to the same types. So I feel really lucky to be amongst this cast who come from many points of the globe.”

Pains have been taken to make this production as true as possible to Lorca's iconic text, including staging much of the play in its original language. At this stage there are no plans to introduce surtitles. Acting in Spanish has been an easy transition for Da Silva, who grew up speaking Portuguese, but will audiences take to it as easily? She hopes so. “You're definitely going to feel something. And there's enough English in there for you to understand the story and know what's going on. I think you go to the theatre for the human experience, and those human experiences transcend any kind of language barrier.”

This is a play that demands that performers bring their all to the stage, and in this case the non-verbal elements are more important than ever in making the text accessible. Music is a part of that. “We've got Tim Rogers working with us and a cast of amazing singers, like Mariola Fuentes, who is a seasoned flamenco performer, and Silvia Colloca, who is an opera singer. We're going to do everything in our power to do justice to the poetry of Lorca's words. You've really got to celebrate the theatrical nature of it.”

Hopefully that theatricality will be enough to convey some of Lorca's poetry to a non-Spanish speaking audience. Staging a play partially in a foreign language may be a risk, but Da Silva feels that for Potts and the cast it's a unique opportunity to bring something untranslatable to an English-speaking audience. “Lorca's work in Spanish sends ripples through your blood.” She describes the experience of preparing to audition for the play with the original Spanish text. “When I read it to my parents, who are both Spanish speakers, they were engrossed for three hours. We sat there and the imagery spoke to them in a way that not much modern language does. To be able to do justice to this language is the greatest challenge of the piece, and something I'm really excited by.”

WHAT: Blood Wedding

WHEN & WHERE: Thursday 26 July until 4 August, Malthouse Merlyn Theatre