This is not ninteenth century rural Spain but a contemporary and cosmopolitan urban landscape where knife-crime is endemic and the feuding gangs keep the city in a permanent state of unrest. It is a raucous, vibrant, messy, brutal world – a profusion of colour and sound – a world of powerful rhythms – Lorca's lyric poetry translating into song and the poetry of the street – rap and reggae, hip hop and gospel. The seven performers play several parts, each telling their own stories through song and accompanying the stories of those around them.

Before the play even starts the Mother is a victim, having already lost one son and her husband to the gang warfare - she has become one-woman campaign fighting against knife-crime (in the mould of Damilola Taylor's mother).

The reality and the recognisability of this world and these characters provides an even starker contrast with the descent into surrealism and symbolism of the third act where we meet the moon and realise the beggar woman/tramp is in fact the figure of death. The problem of blood is a problem of compatibility – the Bride has a choice between the cold-blood of the Bridegroom and the hot blood of her old flame Leonardo, between ice and fire. The characters of Blood Wedding are archetypes, cyphers, symbols – the Mother, the Sister, the Bride – all without name except for Leonardo (the 'Burning Lion') and ironically he is the character we know the least. It is the women of this world, this strongly matriarchal world, to whom we relate – the mothers, the wives – those who are left behind after the bloodshed is over.

But before the blood comes the wedding – how do we create a raucous, passion filled celebration with a company of only seven performers – where are the guests? In the audience – the entire theatre becomes the wedding reception as we depart from the original text and several scenes happen – several stories are told – simultaneously. The audience become the heart and focus of the play – they can drift in and out of certain scenes, certain conversations as the whim takes them – they can eaves-drop a conversation between the Bride and her sister one minute and start learning the great wedding dance that they will all have to perform as the culmination of the wedding celebrations, the next.